Pokemon Rose
by HeleneAlexandra
Summary: Pokemon Red/Blue gameboy-verse. Set 50 years after Red and Blue swept through Kanto, defeating the Elite 4. Young trainers from all across Kanto are pulled into a conspiracy and must choose to get involved or turn away. Only original 150. OCs. LONG story.
1. The Last Night :Gina:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 1: The Last Night

(Gina Ikeda)

Gina's watch, which was currently not working and had become the subject of her tinkering, normally had a Charmander tail ticking slowly around the face. It had been a purchase in Viridian during a massive shopping frenzy the past summer, along with all the standard Pokémon books—Y_our Starter and You, Pokemon Language: The Spoken and Unspoken, Victory Road_—and many obscure ones, such as _Butterfree, Beedrill and Beyond._ They lined her shelves in cramped rows, and she had not even had a chance to read most of them yet. Even so, Gina could still remember when the traveling vendors had last stopped by Pallet Town. They had been lugging even more books with them, and it had taken Gina a great deal of self-control to not abjectly and shamelessly beg her mother for everything on that cart.

Gina gave up on the watch and tossed it aside, sighing. It had been a choice between the Charmander tail, a lightning bolt, or a Cubone bone. It was distressing that it had chosen today to break, but at least now it would serve as a reminder. It had frozen at 12:02 a.m. on the morning of her twelfth birthday. It was official. She was legally allowed to become a trainer at any time.

This year it was Pallet's turn to host the Pokémon Expo and New Trainer Initiative. It only happened there once every nine years, and her mom had told Gina it was a "sign." The age limit for children to travel unattended had been upped to twelve around the time Gina had been born, and here she was, twelve years old a mere month before the Initiative would be in her own home town.

There was a knock on her door, and Gina kicked her dirty laundry off the corner of her bed, aiming it in the general direction of her fallen hamperer. "Yeah!"

Her mom pushed the door open with her butt and backed up into the room, carrying a tray with two chipped mugs on it. Gina knew hers was the one painted with various fire-type Pokemon, all blowing flames furiously at the base of the mug. Her mother's was an old one, an embarrassingly childish piece with "#1 Mom!" written on it, plus a crooked happy face.

"Happy birthday," her mom said, grinning and stacking some cups together on Gina's nightstand so there would be room for the tray. "I see being a year older has not convinced you to suddenly clean your room."

"Nope," Gina agreed, taking her cup and scooting over so her mom had a place to sit next to her on the bed.

Gina looked nothing like her mother; she was adopted, so it made sense. Gina had long, sun-damaged brown hair, which seemed to always be a bit tangled. Her eyes were blue and her skin was swarthier from all the time she spent outdoors. Rachel, her mom, would burn alive in the sun and become fire red unless under the protection of SPF 50 sunblock. She had incredibly curly red hair, kept short and pulled back into a bandanna most of the time to keep it under control. She sported freckles and had almost childlike features, rounded and youthful.

"You're going to help with set-up tomorrow, right?"

Moms always had a way of posing a command in question form. Gina smiled slightly and nodded, sipping from her mug. "I don't have a choice," she stated, and got a "damn straight," in response.

Her mom was truly a busy body. The fact that she, like everyone else in Pallet, would be starting prep for the Expo tomorrow was pretty stunning to Gina. For as long as she could remember, Rachel had a waitressing gig down at Mulligan's, one of the two diners in Pallet Town. Some days they were simply slammed with customers, and her mom returned exhausted, ready to collapse on any flat surface. Other days it was so slow that she was sent home early with her share of measly tips and a slight frown on her face. Pallet also had a fancier, high-end restaurant, but it was not doing well at all and there were sounds that it would soon be out of business.

In the last two years Rachel had started a side business that helped with the bills a great deal. She was Pallet's official bizarre-costume seamstress. Granted she didn't get a lot of business unless some wacky couple wanted a theme wedding, or a kid's costume party was around the corner, but Halloween was always fun. Gina was her ready and willing assistant then, trying things on, pinning fabric together and covering fabric in copious amounts of glitter. Though Gina wasn't much a fan of dressing up herself, she did enjoy these marathon costume productions, even if she was no good with the more delicate jobs.

"You excited?" her mother asked.

"Yeah, and no," Gina answered honestly. "I'm glad to be twelve and all, but the Expo won't be starting for like six weeks. I'll be more excited then."

Her mom shook her head and sighed. "Stop being grown-up. I don't know where the years went."

"Uh-uh, no," Gina said, shaking her head. "No mushiness. It will not be tolerated."

"So _cruel_," her mom said, rolling her eyes and smiling. "Try to get some sleep, okay? And don't think you're going off on your journey leaving your room like this. I swear I will sell all your things."

"Now who's cruel?" Gina asked, putting on an air of horror and ducking from a pillow that her mom playfully threw at her.

* * *

Pallet was a pretty sleepy town most of the time. It had the reputation of being the "country bumpkin" capital of Kanto, where technology was unheard of and an exciting Friday night consisted of sitting on the porch swing while chewing tobacco. Gina had to admit, as far as she was concerned, these allegations were not far from the truth.

Now, however, Pallet was completely transformed. It seemed that their entire population of 156 was out and about, bustling and taking on various projects in preparation for the Pokémon Expo and New Trainer Initiative. Gina ran a hand through her perpetually tangled hair, smoothing it into something semi-presentable, and headed over to the enormous log wall that encircled her town. A Fearow perched atop it, preening itself. Gina recognized the creature as belonging to Mr. Broderick, and sure enough, he was there a little ways down the wall, nailing a large swatch of fabric to the top of one of the logs. Gina's mother and her coworker from Mulligan's were at the bottom, holding it straight. Gina caught what the banner said and burst out laughing: _Be Boulder! Take a Chansey_. Gina could not believe how lame some of these pun-banners were. They had been arriving all week. She had a very strong suspicion that she knew who had thought them up, too.

Her mom had been alerted to her presence, and peered over her shoulder at Gina, blowing a stray lock of frazzled red hair away. "Hey sweetie! Go help Professor Drake!"

Professor Drake turned out to be behind his research center, staring blankly at the empty back wall. A few researchers were sitting awkwardly on the grass, struggling to get comfortable in their black slacks and business shirts, scribbling on clipboards. Professor Drake appeared to be deep in absentminded-Professor mode. Gina approached with caution.

"Heya," she said, and before she could get anything else out, he replied.

"What do you think? A Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle, all sitting together in a meadow? Too cutesy?" He waved one hand across the blank wall, a vague gesture to go with the vision in his head.

"Way too cutesy," Gina affirmed. "The starters are great, of course, but they should be doing something... using an attack, or something like that."

"Mmm," Professor Drake said, tilting his head to the side again. "Sounds like the mural we did nine years ago... you'd have been too young to remember."

Gina smiled, trying to cook up a different idea. She had always liked Professor Drake immensely. Most of the adults in Pallet treated people her age with an excess of sensitivity and coddling, but the professor was always forthcoming with his opinion. "Okay, well, we're Pallet Town, right?" Gina said. "When the first trainers started off, this was their kick-off point."

"Ah, yes..." Professor Drake said, picking up on Gina's train of thought and running with it. "Maybe a map of Kanto..."

"But not totally bird's eye view—"

"No, at a slight angle—"

"Yeah, stretching out towards the back—"

By the time their planning session was done, one of the professor's aides had compiled a pretty decent sketch. Apparently they had been doodling ideas on their clipboards, not taking complex research notes as Gina had previously thought. She found it pretty funny that this was part of what they got paid to do.

Alana, an intern from Saffron City, showed Gina and the professor her final drawing, and Gina was stunned at how good an artist she was. A superimposed image of the starters, looking very badass, was in the background, and their not-quite-bird's-eye map showed each city sporting an elemental burst of power and a badge. The final touch, which Gina and the professor had said in excited unison, was the Indigo Plateau, blown up to legendary proportions and shrouded in mysterious shadow. Something occurred to Gina.

"Wow. This will be kind of a lot to paint in two weeks."

"Nothing's ever too much, Gina!" the Professor stated stoutheartedly. "Thank you for letting me leech your brain juice."

Now there was a pretty gross mental image. Gina snorted, but quickly adopted an expression of confusion when the professor handed her the clipboard with the drawing.

"Go inside and make a copy, will you? Then go and pick out some paint at Walden's. Thank you!" Gina was midway through a protest but it was pretty obvious that Professor Drake wasn't paying attention anymore. He'd just asked Alana for her latest Pokémon pun (_Don't be Gastly! Fight the Drowzee-ness with our fresh-brewed coffee!_) and had burst out laughing. "You're even better than me!" the professor said as they turned to walk away. "Why are you interning? You should be illustrating Pokémon joke books."

Gina blinked at the professor's retreating back and shook her head. For one, she did not have the faintest idea how a copy machine worked. She was also not very artistic and had no freaking clue how much paint she should order from their local hardware store.

Well, the professor's enormous respect for kids did have a downside.

Gina found the research center's copier quickly enough, but getting it to behave was another thing altogether. She figured that laying the drawing flat on the glass screen was safer than trusting the strange tray labelled "document feeder." That made it sound like the machine would devour Alana's sketch.

Where to position it on the glass, though? It took Gina a few seconds to locate the small arrows and diagrams. She opened and closed the copier's lid many times before she was satisfied that it was in line. The little display screen was black. Gina wondered if it was turned off.

She was crawling around on the ground looking for the power switch when the doors to the research center opened again. Gina peered over at the back-lit figure, hoping it was the professor or Alana coming to her rescue, but her hopes were quickly dashed and a scowl came to her face.

"What the heck are you doing?" the figure asked.

Gina thought about ignoring him, but this was his turf after all. "Making copies," she said shortly, attempting to continue her search as if he wasn't there. It was difficult, though. Just his presence in the room made her feel like an idiot already.

"You have no clue what you're doing," the boy said, stepping closer to the machine and Gina. "Have you ever worked with technology in your life?"

The boy was Amaris Drake, the unfortunate combination of genes that had somehow emerged from Professor Drake's family. Amaris was the professor's nephew, and lived with him in the research facility. Because of this, Gina often avoided the place, as much as she liked the professor.

"It's off," Gina said, managing to sound aloof and matter-of-fact.

Amaris snorted, walked over to the machine, and hit a button. It whirred and groaned and came to life, and Gina took a moment to grind her teeth in frustration before she stood up, brushing dust from her jeans.

"Thanks."

"Why in the world would my uncle trust you to touch anything more complicated than a paperclip?" Amaris wondered aloud. "He must be slipping."

Normally Gina would have retorted with some hostile comeback. Now she was just trying to figure out how to make the copy and get out of there.

Amaris, instead of swooping in with the answer, merely crossed his arms and watched. Gina felt like she was taking her graduation finals all over again. There were a lot of buttons on the digital display, and she wondered if she should click at random to see if the option "just copy the freaking paper already" would pop up.

"Oh, brother," Amaris commented.

"Shut up." Gina hit a green button in a moment of decisiveness, and the machine whirred and spat out a paper. Amaris grabbed it before she could, and she growled, "hey!" at him.

"Jesus. This is what you and uncle decided on for the mural?" he held it away from his face, contemplating it with a look of skepticism.

"Give it," Gina demanded.

"I've been ordered to accompany you to Walden's," Amaris mentioned, only now bringing up this fact. Gina just stared at him in muted horror and disbelief. She could not believe Professor Drake had thrown her to the wolves like this. He _had _to know his nephew was an insufferable brat.

"I'm fine."

"You can't even make a copy."

"I _just did!_"

"If I hadn't walked in you'd have been crawling around on the ground for hours."

"Tell your uncle I'm fine on my own," Gina spat, snatching the paper from Amaris' hand and stalking towards the door. She hated how easily he got under her skin. Her temper sometimes got the better of her, but with Amaris that "sometimes" became "always."

Amaris laughed once and followed her out into the blazing June heat. Gina turned and glared at him, then picked up the pace.

By the time they made it to Walden's hardware store they were both extremely overheated. Pallet, small though it was, brought in rolling waves of humidity during the summer. Gina always theorized that it was due to their proximity to Cinnabar Island and the volcanic temperatures there, but being right on the ocean didn't help either. She shoved the doors open and sighed in the cool air, then stared perhaps a bit grouchily at the store owner. Junior Walden blinked at her, confused, then shifted his attention to Amaris. "Hey kids. What can I do for you?"

"Paint," Gina grumbled, heading to the back to look at swatches. Amaris followed her and stood off to the side, running his hands through his rust-colored hair and looking supremely bored and haughty. Gina, wanting to make this fast, grabbed a generic black, white, blue, yellow and red, and stuffed them into a clear plastic bag. Then she bent low over an order slip and started to do some spacial math in her head, trying to figure out how much of each color they would need. She inwardly cursed Professor Drake for his assumption that she knew how much paint was needed to cover the back of a research center. It was amazing what the heat and Amaris' presence could do to her good mood.

"You aren't getting orange or green?" Amaris asked incredulously. "Or gray?"

"You can mix those from these," she said, penciling in "2" for the white swatch.

"That's ridiculous." Amaris pulled green, orange, purple, and gray from the wall and tossed them in Gina's bag.

Gina dug them out. "We don't need those. It's cheaper to mix from these."

"Gina," Amaris said, rolling his eyes, "Unlike you, my uncle actually does have money to afford paint."

Gina fought the urge to slam her hands into a shelf. "I cannot believe how much of an ass you are."

While she was talking, Amaris grabbed the discarded swatches and tossed them back into her bag. Her expression must have changed into something he found funny, because he laughed at her again.

"By the way, two buckets of paint is cutting it close. Get four."

"You do it," Gina said, shoving everything at him and stalking to the door.

"Finally," Amaris muttered, and Gina could practically hear the smug, self-satisfied smile in his voice.

When Gina was later given the task of hammering pegs into the log wall to hold Pokemon merchandise, she happily pounded the crap out of anything she could get her hands on.

* * *

Over the next two weeks, Pallet continued to amp up until Gina's entire town was a restless flurry of action. She helped with just about everything, walking from area to area as a case-by-case errand girl.

Amaris was assisting with the mural on and off, and when Gina could handle looking that way without scowling, she had to admit, he'd had a point about the extra colors. They made a difference, and the more moody purples and fiery oranges the mural took on, the cooler it looked.

Gina measured fabric, counted beads, baked cookies, hammered nails carefully into wood, ran refreshments around, watched toddlers for busy parents, and helped move endless items in and outdoors. She often moved and removed the same things multiple times due to picky designers. Mrs. Halloran was the worst, and Gina quickly took to avoiding her.

Production went on well into the night most of the time, and on the evenings Gina wasn't too exhausted, she climbed up to the roof. It was her favorite place to relax.

It seemed like hardly any time had passed when the night before the big day arrived. Gina was up on the roof, vaguely regretting the soda she'd had earlier in the day. It was now going on ten and she was nowhere near tired.

From what she'd heard, Viridian was an abject mess. Future trainers and in many cases, their entire families, had been piling into that city all week long. Some had even arrived almost a month in advance. Luckily Viridian was always prepared for this hassle. It was rough when the New Trainer Initiative was held in Pallet; Pallet only had one neighboring city, unlike most of the "Big Eight" (as the Gym-bearing towns were called). It wasn't as bad as Cinnabar, though... Gina clearly remembered last year, when the Expo had been held there. Nearly a hundred people had flooded Pallet, since it was the closest bit of civilized land to Cinnabar.

Everything was ready. Gina could see the mural from here. It really had turned out very nice. She was proud for having had a hand in it. Right now the vibrant colors were dulled from the lack of light, making it look smoky, indistinct and mysterious.

Gina shifted to dangle her legs over the edge of the roof, breathing in a deep breath of evening air. It was a balmy night, a snapshot of an ideal summer evening. Her mom was taking the whole upcoming week off from Mulligan's, something most waitresses wouldn't have been able to get away with. As it was she'd covered for her coworkers so often that they had no trouble taking her shifts for her now that her only child would be going off into the world. Her mom was working her last evening shift of the week now, and it was just Gina at home, enjoying the starry sky and the excited buzz of other eager people milling around below.

Over the last six weeks homes had been repainted, gardens trimmed, spare bedrooms cleaned out. Trips to Viridian for supplies had been so frequent that Gina highly suspected all Pokémon on Route 1 were very much in hiding.

Just thinking about Route 1 made a grin come to her face. She'd been dreaming of this day for a long time, and she felt certain that other overexcited twelve-year-olds in Viridian and even Pallet were feeling the same way right now. She wondered how many yawning, tousle-haired teens she'd spot tomorrow morning.

Gina wasn't terribly social, as she was terminally bad at sports and card games (which was basically all the kids her age did here.) Still, she had grown up with a number of peers, and she now felt more attached to them in light of their upcoming departure. Some were too young to start out this week, like the Sanders twins, and some had settled into professions already, not wanting to go to higher schooling or on Pokémon journeys at all. Randy Walden, Junior's son, had just started working at his dad's shop, happily preparing to take over the family business.

It made Gina's skin itch to think of it. Staying in Pallet her whole life, never adventuring or seeing the world... it baffled her that some people were perfectly fine with this. She'd committed a social faux pas the other day and explained her stance on adventuring while eating at Mulligan's. This had led to her receiving a lecture from Mr. Vanderblad about disrespectful kids judging others. It had been uncomfortable and Gina made a mental note to keep those musings silent from now on.

A Pidgey landed on Pallet's wall and Gina, unbidden, recalled an image of Amaris chucking stones at the birds. He'd claimed it was practice for aiming a Pokéball, and told her she would have such terrible aim that she'd never catch anything. She had gone "Poké-righteous," as he called it, and he had insisted that they were smart enough to fly before the rock got anywhere near them. Turned out, they _were_ smart enough to fly, but it infuriated her that he wouldn't let them sit and mind their own business.

"Gene, you're going to have to fight them and actually _damage_ them when you're a trainer. And you can't deal with me tossing a stone here or there? May as well just work at Mulligan's already."

That had been one of her very few actual fist fights with Amaris. Harassing Pokémon and insulting her mom's profession on the same day was just too much. Why Amaris seemed constantly amused by her baffled Gina. She'd given him one hell of a shiner that day and had been berated by her mother for a good hour. The guy just kept coming back to dish out and receive more abuse.

She grinned at the memory of his scandalized face after that fight. He'd worn an expression that said clearly _wait, you can hit? But... you're a girl._

Gina had to admit, calling her "Gene" (her hideous birth name) had not helped her temper that day. Her mom often apologized, explaining that it had been on her birth certificate and there was nothing they could do until she was sixteen and could have it legally changed. Rachel understood Gina's bureaucratic frustrations, as she had also been adopted by the grandparents Gina had never met, the Ikedas. When Amaris had found this gold nugget of blackmail during school many years ago, he had refused to call her anything but "Gene" from then on. It was only when Gina caught him trapping and training wild Rattata that an agreement was struck up. Gina would keep quiet about his illegal, unregistered training, and Amaris would revert back to calling her Gina. So far he had upheld his end of the deal, so she had upheld hers.

Gina groaned internally. She kept forgetting that Amaris would be embarking on his journey this year, too. He'd stayed back last year, wanting to receive his starter from his uncle rather than at the Expo in Cinnabar. Gina desperately hoped he would plow forward at light speed, be miserably defeated by the Pewter Gym leader, and crawl back to Pallet, ashamed. Gina herself planned to go slow and savor it. She only hoped not too many other trainers had the same idea. Traveling perfectly in sync with a hundred other kids would be a bit lame.

It was now going on eleven and Gina knew she desperately had to get to bed. Tomorrow would be an early morning and she didn't want to be a zombie for it. Reluctantly she slid down from the roof and ducked back into her open window. When her mom arrived home a few minutes later, they decided on six a.m. as a wake-up time. This meant seven and they both knew it.

Gina didn't dream that night. She thought her mind would be full of derring-do and close scrapes with wild Pokémon, or perhaps filled with glorious Gym victories and a four-on-one showdown with the Elite Four. Instead her mind slipped into sweet, empty silence for the last night before the Expo.

* * *

_Author's notes: Kids in my version of the Pokémon world grow up really fast. They're shot-put into elementary school at three years old, move on to high school at eight, and graduate at roughly eleven or twelve. From there they can choose to go to college until they are sixteen, or go straight to trade school/a job. Many kids choose to take some time to go on their Pokémon journeys, which is sort of the equivalent of "let's go backpack Europe before starting college." _


	2. The 2044 Pokemon Expo :Jason:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 2: The 2044 Pokémon Expo

(Jason Fremont)

Jason Fremont was up and fidgeting by 5:30 the morning of the Expo. He watched from the window of his room with anxiety as kids and parents began the walk to Pallet. He was sure many of them were already there. It only took 45 minutes to walk there through the grass, and an extra twenty if you took the paved path away from Pokémon. Jason decided he would give his mom two more minutes of gabbing to her associates in Saffron before he dragged her there in her pajamas.

Jason zipped and unzipped the knee of his cargo pants to pass the time, filling their room at the Viridian City Pokémon Center with agitated sound. He'd kept one leg of his pants long and the other at knee-length, liking the way they looked. He owned three pairs just like this and was determined to keep them all asymmetrical. It would be his "thing."

All good trainers should have a "thing." This was what Jason had been told, anyway. Red, the only known name for the most legendary Master of all time, had gotten his title due to his trademark red cap. The eight Gym Leaders had passed along stories of his triumph to one another as he blazed his way through Kanto, calling him "the kid with the red hat" until his name had just stuck as Red.

Well, this was what Jason had read, anyway. Almost everyone he knew in Saffron owned a copy of Red's biography, _Victory Road_. Not much was known about the mysterious kid who had vanished just as mysteriously almost fifty years ago, and the book was a little lacking, but a great read.

Apparently the kids outside his window had read it too. Jason found it disgusting how many of them were adorned with red caps. By struggling to be memorable they were all going to be indistinguishable from one another.

His mom's two minutes were up. Jason leaped from his bed and over onto hers. She was on her feet in a second, heading to the opposite side of the room and plugging one ear to better hear the person on the phone. Jason didn't let her get far, though, and was in front of her in an instant.

"Mom! You _promised!_" he said, scandalized.

He could hear the surprised voices on the other end of the line. He grinned as his mom said, "No, just my son—Sorry, I—no, it's fine, _he can wait_," she said that with a pointed glare, at which he grinned even broader. "He's just excited... alright, but really—if you insist. I'll be in touch once we arrive at Pallet. Yes, okay."

She hung up and a second later Jason had materialized as if by magic into his backpack and was at the door. "Yes! Now let's go!"

"That was very manipulative, Jason," his mother said, haughty and pouting as she fixed her bouncy blonde hair. "Using your youthful charm on my coworkers."

"Long-distance, too," Jason beamed, proud. "_Damn_, I'm good."

She rewarded him with one of her rare smiles and rolled her eyes affectionately. "Well, let's go."

"Can we—"

"Paved path. I only have Sandshrew, and I'd rather not use him to ward off wild Pokémon. You know how senile he is."

Jason wondered if his mom was telepathic and pouted about that extra twenty minutes for a second or two. Then he was out the door and dashing towards Route 1 at breakneck speed, his mother calmly following at a steady pace.

* * *

Jason could not stop staring at everything in Pallet Town. He felt like he was a little bug-eyed and freakish looking at the moment, but just could not help himself. Everything delighted him. In just the first ten minutes he had bugged his mom for, and received, a Bulbasaur cookie, a Poké-belt (something he had coveted for years) and a set of Pokémon playing cards. She had drawn the line there, and Jason knew better than to push the envelope.

He had to admit, even though it was decked out and fancy at the moment, Pallet was _tiny. _Saffron was a huge city, and he figured he could fit over fifty Pallet Towns inside it comfortably. They had an underground subway system and bullet trains back home, but it didn't look like anyone in Pallet traveled on anything more high-tech than a bike.

Jason stopped at a kiosk that was selling metal Pokémon bracelets that looked completely badass. He had to bite his tongue to keep from asking for one.

They were paired up with a nice older woman who lived alone and seemed to take to Jason's wacky antics very kindly. His mother kept herself away from her cell phone long enough to thank the woman, but then she was locked away in her room talking. Jason met the other kid who was rooming with them and would be taking the downstairs bedroom. His name was Marco, and Jason and he played a game of War with his new cards to break them in.

When noon rolled around Jason was more than ready. Marco and he headed outside and struggled to find a good view of the front of the Pokémon Research Center. It really felt like there were simply too many people shoved into this small town.

The red-headed man who stepped up to the podium was wearing a white lab coat over a dark red business shirt and gray pinstriped vest. Jason thought it was a pretty weird outfit, but hey. He himself was sporting his mismatched cargos; perhaps this was the professor's "thing." There was a teenage boy leaning against the wall of the research center close to the professor, and Jason wondered if that was his son. He had the same rusty red hair.

"Greetings, all!" the professor said, grinning at the crowd. "Wow, lots of people. I'm Professor Andrew Drake, and welcome to the 2044 Pokémon Expo!" There was a whole lot of enthusiastic applause, but hardly any whoops and hollers. Jason had remembered a lot of whooping and hollering during the 2039 Pokémon Expo in Saffron. "We've got a lot going on, as you can see. There will be a Q and A later today, as well as a banquet around the school. I say 'around' because there's no way we can fit all of you in there." There was pleasant laughter. "Tomorrow will be a tournament, for those of you who brought Pokémon to battle—and I don't mean you kids! You'll get your chance, be patient!" he added as a response to the groans. "Sign up for the tournament today when you get your food. The New Trainer Initiative—" now here was some cheering, "Will be one week from today, right here! Alright everyone, there will be more announcements later, but for now, go take a look around! Have fun!"

The professor took his leave and Jason turned to Marco and grinned. "Later," he said, and Marco nodded in response. The two boys split off and joined the rest of the crowd milling around Pallet.

* * *

The next day was the tournament, and Jason made sure he got a spot very close to the front. It was broken into light-, middle- and heavy-weight divisions, and he was amused to see how many nervous parents had enrolled. They waved to their kids in the crowd, wearing huge goofy grins, and shook their heads as if to say "Why me?"

The light-weights were up first, which roughly equated to people with Pokémon between the 10-15 level mark. Jason found these battles largely hilarious—his favorite highlights had to be a Staryu missing target completely and getting a large section of the crowd wet (the "splash zone" as Jason now deemed it) and a furious Tackle attack getting too close to a trainer who dove out of the arena completely. Jason could not stop laughing.

The middle-weight division was a bit more intense, and a little less slap-stick. Jason missed a good portion of these fights though, since he was trading cards with a few kids around him. He scored a Wartortle card and quit trading while he was ahead just in time to see a Graveler slam its Arbok opponent into the mat with a resounding crash.

The heavyweight division drew the biggest crowd of spectators, and Jason soon found himself crushed up against the arena itself, something he did not find promising. The professor's aides came to the rescue though, and he was given breathing room again as a line was drawn giving the arena a good fifteen feet of perimeter. This thrilled Jason already; if the arena needed that much space, this was going to be a great show.

The first match was between a woman and a man, perhaps in their twenties. Both had brown hair and brown eyes, but did not appear to be related. The man was dark skinned, a vicious fighter, and specialized in Rock- and Ground- types. The woman was freckled and kind-faced, but was not one to be messed with as he soon found out. Jason felt his jaw drop open when he saw the enormous hulking shape of a Nidoking emerge from the man's first Pokéball. He had seen them on TV but this one seemed to be even more massive than normal. The fifteen-foot perimeter suddenly seemed very cramped. The woman's response was a Dewgong, and the battle began.

Jason and the others soon gave the fight another fifteen feet of breathing room. Blasts of icy air flooded out from the fight, and the sound of the Nidoking screeching and snarling actually made the hairs on his arms stand up. People were ducking farther back, getting behind each other while still trying to watch. Jason was too mesmerized to make any more movements period, fervently glad of his front row seat.

Dewgong took out Nidoking with Ice Beam, but the man had another trick up his sleeve. The Dewgong was feeling the effects, and with renewed attacks from a robust Nidorino, it did not last long in the fight. The woman was forced to send out a Tangela. Nidorino seemed to be tearing through it quickly, but soon it was caught in a Bind that rendered its attacks barely effective. The man, seeing this, recalled Nidorino and sent out a Sandslash.

"Look, mom!" Jason said, pointing to it. "Maybe ours could become one of those!"

"Hah," she said, shaking her head. "Sorry, kiddo. No chance of that."

The Sandslash was much more effective against Tangela, curling in on itself and warding off vines with the long brown spines on its back. Soon Tangela had been defeated, though Jason found it difficult to see that the Pokémon had fainted. It didn't appear to have a discernible difference, except that it stopped moving. The next one out, to Jason's shock, was a Seadra. The man hardly had time to look unhappy when his Sandslash was defeated by it, though not without getting in a good hit on its way down.

His next Pokémon was Marowak, and Jason thought it was a pretty poor choice. He could not have been more wrong, though. The woman was smart, ordering Water Gun, but this Marowak was simply fast. It evaded the attack, and, with one devastating Bone Club, ended the Seadra's reign of terror against the man's Rock- and Ground-types. Jason cheered with the rest of the crowd, who honestly seemed to be cheering equally for the man and woman. This had been the most intense match yet, and it was not over.

Next up was Exeggutor, and inexplicably the man switched back to the Nidorino for this one. Jason was confused until the Exeggutor stomped around on the Nidorino and managed to poison itself on Nidorino's back barbs. Nidorino looked pretty worse for the wear, so the man switched back out to Marowak while the woman looked deeply unhappy. She took a turn to use antidote on Exeggutor, but it was too late. Marowak dispatched it with another Bone Club and the woman was forced to send out her last Pokémon, Golbat.

For this, the man switched out to Rhyhorn. Really, it was all over. Golbat got a good Confuse Ray out and addled Rhyhorn. It hurt itself once, tripping and slamming down into the mat, and Golbat bit it while it was down, but one Horn Drill and it was a critical hit, K.O., match done. The crowd went wild and to Jason's confusion, the woman crossed to the man, beaming, and shook his hand. He grinned at her with a devious look in his eye and abruptly pulled her into a kiss in the middle of the arena. The crowd went wild and Jason went, "ugh!"

"Now that's a great relationship," his mom was saying, grinning and clapping. "A man and woman who can enjoy some healthy competition as equals and not let it affect them."

_Blah blah blah_, Jason thought, rolling his eyes and already coming down off the adrenaline high from that intense match. "When's the next one?"

The next one, as it turned out, was coming up in ten minutes. Jason took that time to rant about it to Marco and some other boys, grinning ear-to-ear as they replayed some of the better moments together (the poisoning of Exeggutor, the Ice Beam that had taken out Nidoking, and that K.O. Horn Drill from Rhyhorn at the end.) They also gagged together at the kiss, wondering why those two awesome trainers would want to ruin a perfectly cool battle with gross romantic crap. They all shut up right away when the next match started though.

The next two contestants were around the same age as the last two. The man was blond, blue-eyed, and had a very shrewd expression on his face that he covered up with an amiable smile. The girl had short, straight black hair and carried a mischievous air. She grinned with abandon and made funny faces and gestures to the audience, who laughed at her antics appreciatively in the moments before the battle, while Professor Drake was telling them to move back (again.)

The man's first Pokémon was Pidgeot, and the woman's was Raticate. Jason was a little disappointed; these had evolved from a mere Pidgey and Rattata, nothing special. He soon changed his mind though. They fought quite viciously, and this battle certainly had the feel of a complex dance. Jason had a hunch these two had fought before. He desperately hoped they would not kiss at the end of their battle like the last two had.

Raticate dispatched Pidgeot with a Hyper Fang move, something that was quite devastating to see. The man was quick on his feet, and recalled his Pokémon before serious harm could be done to it. Jason gulped at this sight. He wondered briefly, _Will I be fast enough to make a snap-decision like that in battle?_ He had read in history class that Team Rocket often specialized in Pokémon like Raticate, whose bite could be fatal to a Pokémon if it was given the order to hit hard. This Raticate was not out for blood, but still... Jason could suddenly see why this type of Pokémon had a stigma for being "bad."

The man's next Pokémon was Golduck, and Jason's jaw dropped at how freaking _cool _it looked up close. He made a mental note to capture one of his own. Raticate did not last long against Golduck; it had some pretty impressive Psychic moves. Raticate did a lot of biting—biting the dust, that was. The woman switched out to a Venomoth, which confused Jason a little. He didn't know much about Venomoth, mainly because it was a Bug-type and he felt no real interest in it. Bugs just seemed generally lame. He was wondering what her angle was, but he soon found out. In a very short amount of time, Venomoth had poisoned Golduck, confused it, and sat back and watched as the Pokémon proceeded to hold its head in frustrated pain for two moves in a row. Appearing impressed rather than annoyed, the man recalled Golduck and sent out a Rapidash. The woman did not have time to do anything other than mouth, "aw, _fuck_," which made Jason and a lot of other kids laugh, and many parents look appalled. Rapidash had sent Venomoth out of the battle in a ball of flame, and the woman recalled it pronto.

Her next choice was a Primeape, which confused Jason yet again. He was stunned, however, at the fight that followed. It was the most intense Pokémon showdown yet. Primeape's moves were truly impressive, and it beat down on Rapidash to generally great effect. Rapidash, however, responded with cunning, speed, and devastating Fire-type moves. Primeape defeated it, just by a hair, and was recalled by the woman when the man let out Golduck for round two. Golduck's confusion was been cured due to its temporary stay in the Pokéball.

The woman sent out a Pidgeot, and Jason raised his eyebrows. It was interesting, seeing that she had the same Pokémon the man had sent out earlier in the match. She used this Pidgeot differently, though. It used Fly attack a lot, managing to dodge Water Gun frequently (the left side of the crowd was looking very drenched.) It also used Sand Attack, a level five ability if Jason recalled correctly, but one that was truly effective. He was impressed against his will; using low-level techniques was something he wanted to get away from ASAP, but watching Golduck stagger around, blind and ineffective, changed his mind. He had a lot to learn about training.

Pidgeot tore away at Golduck until the Pokémon was clearly out of commission, and the man shook his head, smiling at the girl who grinned back. Jason wondered how they could all be so mature and full of smiles with one another. He wasn't sure he'd be able to maintain a happy demeanor when faced with someone kicking the tar out of him and his Pokémon in battle. Maybe it was an adult thing. Next up for the man was Tauros, which shockingly enough took out the Pidgeot with a very lucky Stomp. It must have been a critical hit or something, with just a little extra pizazz behind it. The woman sent out Primeape again, and the Pokémon managed to whittle away at Tauros a little before being defeated by the tenacious bull. The woman sent out her last, Arcanine.

Arcanine made quick work of the already weakened Tauros, and Jason held his breath a little, wondering what the last Pokémon would be on the man's side. When the hazy red form solidified into a Kadabra, the woman actually grinned ear-to-ear and said, "fuck," aloud this time, which caused more mixed reaction from the crowd. The man grinned, and they dove right in.

It didn't take long. Kadabra sustained a burn, but it didn't even have to use Recover on itself in order to win. Confusion and Psychic took out Arcanine in two devastating moves. The energy from Kadabra was so strong that even Jason felt it, and reeled from a disorientation deep in his brain. He was still shaking his head out, a little confused, when the professor declared the two men the winners and announced that they would face off against each other the next day.

Jason watched the four very impressive trainers head off, much of the time being confronted by those who wanted to talk to them. They seemed friendly enough, but Jason didn't want to bug them. They looked like they were all friends, and he did catch one thing that the blond man said to a small, frightened-looking girl: "Naw, we didn't like traveling with others at first, but man, it sure helps you stay sharp. Meet some great people if you do that, too. I recommend it." His friends gave their general consensus to the girl, and she looked about ready to pass out from all the attention from high-end trainers.

Jason puzzled this advice over in his head a little, but it did not take him long at all to get distracted. People were starting Pokémon battles left, right and center now, most of them the ones who had not had the guts to enter the tournament. Jason had a ton of entertainment as he settled down to watch the shows.

* * *

Over the next few days Jason's excitement grew to a perilous height. He had Pokémon card battles with countless kids as a way to distract himself from the growing restlessness. He was a pretty good card player, he had to say, and won himself a little money here and there. Eventually the parents of the kids he was draining of cash caught on though, and they were forbidden from gambling away their journey money anymore. Jason's own mom made him give most of it back, which was definitely groan-worthy.

On the sixth day of the Expo, Jason, the other kids, and some of the parents were gathered up and taken on a tour of the Oak Research Facility, which for some reason had not been changed to the Drake Research Facility. One kid raised her hand and asked Professor Drake about this, and he answered that he wanted to preserve the legacy of Professor Oak, and had an enormous amount of respect for the Pokémon icon—too much to plow over his research facility's image and name.

Jason thought he should be getting tired of being awe-struck and fascinated, but it just hadn't happened yet. He was not the only kid staring hungrily at the reference books, or unblinkingly at the gadgets lining the walls. He recognized an older version of the machine that Pokémon Centers used to heal Pokémon in a matter of mere hours, as well as a newer model. The professor said that he was borrowing one from Viridian for the Expo. Jason craned his neck to see if he could locate the hundreds of Pokéballs that would surely contain the starters, but they seemed tucked out of sight. He supposed it was smart. Some people might fly into a Pokémon frenzy and charge... himself included.

"Well, here's the part I imagine you've all been waiting for," the professor said, and Jason's heart leaped into his throat momentarily, as he tricked himself into believing that they would get registered early. "Time to get acquainted with the Pokédex! Follow me."

Though this was not really what they had all been waiting for, there was a surprising lack of groans around the room. Getting your Pokédex was such a huge first step that no one could pretend they weren't looking forward to this tutorial at least a little.

The professor and some of his aides passed out some sample Pokédexes to the learners. There were not enough for everyone, so Jason buddied up with Marco and a few other kids to look over the shiny red device. Jason managed to be the one holding it, and felt sort of like the most important person in the world because of it.

"Hit the middle button to power it up. Some of your folks may have older versions, so you may not recognize some of the features. This is all touch screen now, so get used to it!"

Jason was thrilled, of course, but one of the kid's parents behind him groaned. "Freakin' technology these days. Touch screen? Come on. I used to have a directional pad, an A and B button..." He grumbled on for a bit more, but Jason was too busy scrolling through the menu like a pro, checking out the entries for Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle. He was going a little ahead of the professor, and one of the kids nudged him angrily to get him to slow down.

"When you are each issued your own tomorrow," (Jason's heart leaped again at the word "tomorrow,") "you'll have a thumbprint scan taken so it will be utterly useless if someone steals it from you. Try not to horrendously disfigure both of your thumbs then, okay?" There was remarkably little chuckling. Hell, Jason had thought it was funny. The professor coughed and continued. "There's voice recognition too, don't worry. Though you may want to change that every few years, just in case. Puberty and all. Right."

Jason raised an eyebrow at the professor. He seemed a little nervous. The red-headed kid was standing next to him again, and he also raised his eyebrow at Professor Drake.

"This is a really nifty device. How many of you are familiar with the Pokémon Abra?" A flurry of hands shot into the air. "Do you know the name of Abra's one technique?"

"Teleport," Jason shouted, and got himself a few glares from the kids who had actually had their hands raised to answer the question. The professor winked and made a clicking sound with his tongue.

"Right-o. And what does Teleport do? Gina?" He pointed to a girl in the front of the room, who had kept her hand slightly raised the whole time.

"Teleport allows Abra to flee from battles," Gina said.

"And?"

"It... I mean, if you catch it, and it's your Pokémon, you can have it take you places."

"That's right," the professor said, nodding at Gina. Behind him, the red-head kid rolled his eyes epically. "The Pokédex uses technology inspired by Abra. If you ever are out in the wild and your Pokémon all faint, your Pokédex will automatically send you back to the last center you visited." There was a collective "whoa!" from the crowd, most of whom had not known that. Even some of the parents seemed impressed, or in some cases, worried. One mother put her hand in the air.

"Yes, the woman in the yellow blazer?"

"Hi, yes. How do we know this is safe?" There was a murmur of consent and some sighing from the kids.

"Well, our success rate is 100%! I have some reading material for you on the Pokédex... my aides will hand it out to interested parties at the door. There are a few experts I can call up for you on our webcam conferencing, as well." This seemed to mollify a lot of the parents.

"You didn't hurt any Abras making the Pokédex, right?" another girl asked a bit fearfully.

"What?" Professor Drake asked, sounding shocked. "Oh! No, of course not!" He held up a Pokédex and adopted a movie announcer voice. "_No Abras were harmed during the making of this Pokédex." _Kids chuckled around the room.

Jason and his little group listened with the kind of intensity Jason doubted they had ever shown during their schooling. He had to admit, though he knew a lot about what these new Pokédexes did, he was still shocked at some of the new features. Older models, he was told, only held about 100 words of write-up about Pokémon. This Pokédex held a seemingly endless amount.

"Is it true that a Pokémon won't appear in here unless the kids see it in person?" one parent asked.

"Nope! Those days are in the past. All the information is available; however, it won't log it as having been seen, or caught, until it actually _is _seen through the viewfinder or caught. And don't try to hack these and make it look like you have all 150. They don't like that!"

It had everything. A GPS (the fancier version of a Town Map), a task list, inventory list, calendar, phonebook and functioning phone chip, email... it could play music, identify constellations, take pictures and videos, sound an alarm...

"How much do these things cost to build, exactly?" one of the kids asked towards the back.

"That's for us to know, and for you to ponder."

Jason wanted his so badly now it was almost as intense as the longing for his Pokémon. It was almost unreasonably cool.

"I guess the last thing to mention is that the Pokédex is its own instruction manual. The help menu is right down at the bottom of the scroll bar, and if you can't find something to help you in there, just access the phone book and call Tech Support. There's someone there 24/7. Questions?"

Of course there were, but Jason had no more. Reluctantly he allowed Marco to take the sample Pokédex from him and fawn over it, and Jason glanced out the window at the darkening night sky. He could not believe it would be tomorrow so soon. He almost wished he could take something to knock himself out pronto so that it would come even faster.

* * *

On the morning of the New Trainer Initiative, Jason rolled over and right out of bed, hitting his head on something lying on the floor. He tried to free himself from the blankets he had managed to get tangled in, to little success. Apparently Mrs. Harada, the kind old lady of the house had heard the commotion. There was a knock on the door, and Jason suddenly realized he had no pants.

"Uhh—hold on!" he shouted, grabbing his mis-matched cargos and yanking them on halfway. His belt was what he had hit his head on, and he twisted his body to try to grab it.

The door opened just a crack. "Hello? Jason, right? Are you okay in there?"

"Don't come in! And yeah, I'm fine, thanks ma'am!" He sighed in relief as the door clicked shut again, and managed to get himself upright and properly dressed.

His mother was waiting for him downstairs, looking a little misty-eyed and for once, not on the phone. Jason walked right up to her side, grinning, and she struggled to keep her composure, acting as if she was rubbing her eyes due to tiredness. Jason could tell she was worried about her composure, because she wasn't wearing any makeup for fear of it running.

"Hey," he said, needling her a little more. "So, off I go out into the wide open world... all grown up... gonna get my first Pokémon in a few—"

"Yes, yes I know!" his mother snapped, and Jason's grin grew. They had an odd relationship, but he knew that bugging her into showing this defensiveness was the way they said their "I love you." His mother looked at him, disapproving in a way that was completely proud. "You're too tall."

"Yeah, mom. Come on, let's _go!_"

* * *

Jason slid into line a few confusing hours later, pleased that he was about tenth from first. There were maybe a hundred new trainers forming this line, and Jason suddenly felt overwhelmingly lucky to be one of them. His mother had almost not conceded to let him go, finding the whole Master journey thing to be a waste of time.

He groaned as the first guy came out of the building. The boy locked eyes with him for a second and gave him a once-over, looking extremely haughty. Jason recognized him as the red-headed relative of the professor, and rolled his eyes. Of course, preferential treatment.

It seemed like a very long time passed before it was Jason's turn, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. He jogged quickly through the doors, mumbling "Jason Fremont" in passing at the researcher who was taking names. He burst in through the double-doors at the back of the lab and said, "Hello!" almost before they were open.

"Hello there!" the professor said, grinning over at him. "You're?"

"Jason Fremont," Jason replied stout-heartedly.

"Fremont... you're Nathan Fremont's boy? One of his boys?"

Jason froze a bit at the mention of his father and, inadvertently, his brother both in the same minute. He nodded once, and the professor seemed to realize this was a touchy subject and dropped it. "What will your starter be?" he asked.

Now here was a good topic. "Bulbasaur," Jason said with no hesitation.

"Bulbasaur it is," the professor said, smiling. Jason felt like his world had been in constant motion ever since he had entered this building, but as something fell heavily into his outstretched hand, it stopped. Red and white metal shone in a high-polished gleam. The reassuring weight in his hands made Jason feel as if he'd just been crowned Supreme Ruler of the Universe. All his hopes and dreams resided somewhere within the amazing mechanism cupped in his palms now.

Jason wanted to start this very second, now, yesterday. He was dashing out the door when the professor called, "hold on there!" at him, those three words reminding Jason that he had not filled out any of the promised paperwork or (he felt like an idiot) received his Pokédex.

"Er, sorry," he said sheepishly, doubling back with a big grin on his face.


	3. Ladies First :Gina:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 3: Ladies First

(Gina Ikeda)

Gina could not believe how busy she'd been. Ever since the Expo had started, it seemed all she did was assist people. It was a little irksome, since she very much wanted to go explore and partake in all her hard work. After the second day of this her mother requested that people not bother the children and instead ask help of the adults, which allowed Gina a bit more time to herself.

The week flew by in a flurry, far too fast for Gina's tastes. Soon it was the morning of the New Trainer Initiative, and Gina found herself milling about with the other kids disgustingly early in the morning, waiting in a haphazard mass for the adults to give them direction. They were shoved into lines at last, and now it was the waiting game.

It was a New Trainer Initiative tradition that the kids from the hosting city would allow the visitors a place in line before them. Gina had been expecting this and was not particularly bothered, if she didn't count the blazing sun that would tire her out rather quickly. She had been nervous that Professor Drake would run out of starters, but when she had voiced this concern, he smiled and shook his head. "We have twice what we need, Gina. Don't worry! Unless every single one of you decides on the exact same starter, we'll be fine."

Gina noticed with no surprise that Amaris was heading the line, completely disregarding etiquette. He was the topic of some annoyed discussion around her.

"Is that Amaris? Frick, why does he get to go up there, and we're back here? Spoiled."

Gina nodded vaguely in agreement, not really contributing to the talk behind her but glaring at Amaris' head and wishing it to set ablaze.

There was a tap on her shoulder from behind though, and she was forced to put a halt in her attempts to commit long-distance mental arson. It was Finn Michaels, a fellow twelve-year-old who had just barely missed the age limit cut-off last year at Cinnabar. Gina smiled at him and exchanged a thumbs up.

"Excited?" she asked, a dumb question.

"Oh, yeah. You?" Gina nodded. "What's your starter gonna be?" he continued.

"And let you get a type advantage over me? I don't think so!" She grinned slyly at him and he laughed.

"Well, I'm getting a Bulbasaur no matter what you say. Smartest choice!" A girl behind him murmured her agreement.

Gina felt an inner wiggle of discomfort, but she kept her smile in place. "Well, maybe I like a challenge."

Finn raised his eyebrows. "Charmander?" he asked, reading between the lines and finding the correct answer. "Cool."

_Once I get past the first two Gyms, yeah, _Gina thought. She tried not to let it worry her. "Thanks."

Amaris walked past them at that moment, and directed his self-satisfied smirk over to Gina as he tossed his new Pokéball in the air. Gina fought the urge to trip him, and behind her Finn sighed testily.

Their conversation tapered off from there, and it was all for the better. Gina and the others moved through the line in weird bursts, fast at times, then painfully slow at others. Either way the sun was very high now, and Gina was not interested in making small talk any longer. Adults passed out refreshments along the line, which was a life-saver. Gina finished her lemonade a little too fast and took to etching designs into the lip of her paper cup with her nail out of nerves. It seemed like forever before it was her turn; already people were battling their Pokémon around her. Gina was simultaneously thrilled and terrified.

When she walked into the air-conditioned comfort of the Oak Research Center, Gina was stunned to see that only about an hour had gone by since the doors had first opened. She supposed her anxiousness had made it seem like so much more time. She passed the infamous copy machine and headed to the back of the lab, where Professor Drake was waiting for her.

"Gina," he said, grinning broadly at her. "How are you feeling today? Like a new trainer yet?"

"I will," Gina said, trying so hard to sound more cool and collected than she was, "once you give me a Charmander."

"Charmander it is," the professor said, giving her a warm smile. "I sort of thought you'd take that route. Not surprised in the slightest."

"Thanks," Gina said, actually meaning it that time. At times she had severely doubted her decision. Amaris in particular always made her second-guess herself. It was just an innate talent of his. He'd caused her to vacillate back and forth over her starter about nine times over the past year, but Gina just kept coming back to Charmander. She didn't know what it was; it could be something as complex as destiny, or something as mundane as seeing her Charmander watch every day.

Either way, Gina felt nothing of her leftover anxiety when Professor Drake presented her with the sphere of high-polished chrome a moment later. All that was left was an ecstatic feeling of energy rising higher and higher inside until it had nowhere to go but out. In a moment of sheer impulse, Gina took a step forward and hugged Professor Drake, who laughed heartily and hugged her back.

"Right then! Don't forget all about us here in Pallet when you're traveling the world."

"I won't," Gina said, grinning ear to ear and finding everything in the world funny and wonderful. She stayed long enough to sign a paper, program her thumbprint into her shiny red Pokédex, and then she was off through the double-doors into the hot June sun, triumph on her face. She high-fived Finn as he passed her on his way to the professor.

Gina could not stop staring at it. It was three inches in diameter, sealed air-tight with a tiny round aiming laser set into the button in the front, a new feature to the fabulous device that was now hers. Gina did not see Amaris until she had just about run into him.

"Took you long enough," he said, unkind mirth in his teal eyes. He was clutching his Pokéball in one hand, his other arm resting at his side.

"That's because I let the people from out of town go first. The way you're _supposed _to," she retorted, narrowing her eyes at him and attempting to step past him, out of his way.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

Gina looked around, as if for hidden cameras or the answer to a trick question. "Uh... I'm going away from you."

"Running from your first trainer battle? Tch, typical."

Gina had understood what he meant a second before he said it. She struggled not to, but her skin betrayed her and she flushed red, embarrassed to have missed that very obvious social cue. Here she thought she would take to training like a fish to water. She clearly had a long ways to go. "You could have just said so," she grumbled, taking a few steps back to clear an "arena" of space between them.

"What, and miss that fantastic display?" he said, grinning and also taking many steps back. "I think not."

Gina struggled to keep her composure. She had not even seen her Pokémon yet, and this was not how she imagined herself first meeting it. She was trying to figure out how to let it out and assure herself that the first thing Charmander would see would be her. She'd read it in a training book and wanted to do everything right.

Amaris raised an eyebrow as Gina contorted her arm in weird ways. "What are you doing?"

"This is the first time I've seen my Pokémon, as I'm sure you've gathered. I'd like to see it out of combat first."

Amaris wore an expression of absolute puzzlement, no parts sarcastic for a moment. He seemed genuinely confused. "... Why would you ever see your Pokémon outside of battle?" he asked, his brow furrowing.

Gina just stared at him, her expression as baffled as his. "You're not even being sarcastic. That's just, your real opinion. Wow." She shook her head and managed to hold the Pokéball away from her at arm's length and face the laser down to the ground. The angle would assure that Charmander emerged from the Pokéball facing her. While Amaris was still mulling over her actions, Gina took a deep breath and hit the button.

Red light began to form a sketchy shape. Gina's breath died in her throat as she watched. It almost hurt her eyes to comprehend the technological wonder before her. To her surprise, she could feel a small shift in the Pokéball as this happened; it was such a subtle difference, like the feeling of a dead battery versus a full one, almost imperceptible. Yet it was there. She felt the Pokéball deflate, somehow, as if it were becoming no more magical than any old hunk of metal. The wonder she had felt when receiving it just moments ago was being transferred out into the creature materializing before her.

_Orange_, was the first thing Gina thought. Of course she'd seen a Charmander before, in books and on TV, but nothing could have prepared her for the vivid colors and reality of the creature now. The Pokémon looked around it slowly, taking in her sneakers, the grass, and looking up at the sky behind her. She found it odd that it saved looking into her face for last.

Gina's eyebrows shot up into her bangs as she beheld the large pair of teal eyes that met hers. A wave of regret washed over her as she realized they were the precise shade of Amaris'.

Gina had been so wrapped up in staring at her new Pokémon that she had quite missed Amaris sending out his. She turned to face him, hoping for anything but what she saw. There was the small turquoise creature with large, intelligent eyes and a shining brown shell set into its back.

Of _course_. Of course Amaris would make the one choice that would give him an automatic type advantage over her.

It also did not help her mood that she was being laughed at. "What the hell is so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. It just figures that you'd make that choice," he said, covering his face with his hand briefly so all she could see was his grin. He lowered it a second later and stared at her incredulously, humor dripping from his voice. "Do you have _any_ idea how difficult it is to deal with Fire types as a new trainer? I thought I'd changed your mind about that last month. The time you'll have trying to survive against Pewter's Leader!"

Gina bit back quickly, but inside she was anything but confident. "Water types aren't that tough. You'll be singing a different tune at Vermillion." She tried to spit the words out with venom, but it didn't sound right to her.

"You won't even make it that far," Amaris said, his sneer back in place now.

"Enough talk," Gina snarled, itching to wipe the floor with that smirk. "Time to back it up."

"My pleasure," Amaris answered coolly. Gina stood, balanced tensely on the knife's edge, waiting for Amaris to strike. When he did nothing, she fixed him with an accusatory glare. "Ladies first," he said simply, slipping his hands into his pockets. He added under his breath, "You'll need it."

This smug gesture tipped her over the edge. "_Fine! _Charmander!" The Pokémon fixed her with an unwavering stare. "Scratch attack!"

There was a faltering moment of hesitation where Gina was terrified that Charmander wouldn't obey. After those few seconds, though, the Pokémon fixed that stare onto Squirtle and, without any warning, leaped forward and slashed wildly at the small turtle's exposed underbelly. Angry red marks appeared on the cream-yellow skin.

Gina's face split into a smile as Charmander leapt back and flicked its tail from side to side in a gesture of what looked like contempt.

Amaris was unimpressed. "Tackle!"

Without that moment's hesitation that her Charmander had displayed, the turtle righted itself and slammed full-force into the lizard. The two went sailing, and Gina thought for a wild moment that they would slam into her. They stopped before they reached her though, and merely skidded to a painful-looking halt inches away. Squirtle was practically riding her struggling Charmander like a surfboard, a display of show-off bravado that reminded Gina instantly of the boy in front of her.

Charmander was livid. Without waiting for Gina's next command (which would have been Scratch again, anyway) it leapt forward and scratched viciously at the turtle—and didn't stop.

"Charmander!" Gina shouted, appalled at her Pokémon's lack of control. "Stop! That's cheating! _Stop!_"

Amaris scowled. "Can't you control your damn Pokémon?" he snapped, before turning his attention back to the fray. "Squirtle, Tackle it again! Let's end this sad excuse for a battle!"

Squirtle was more than happy to oblige, cocking its head back and ramming Charmander ruthlessly into the ground. Gina's Pokédex began to beep in her pocket. She pulled it out and looked through the viewfinder to see that Amaris' Squirtle still had over a third of its health. It was apparent this fight would not end in her favor. Gina aimed the tiny red laser, so like a sniper rifle, at her Pokémon. "Congrats," she said flatly, trying to be mature and collected like the four heavy-weight contenders from the Expo. She hoped she didn't sound as utterly defeated as she felt.

Red light engulfed Charmander, but right before its form vanished completely into the digital haze, its teal eyes sharply met her own again, as if saying, _I could have won if you'd just let me!_

Gina could have sworn she was imagining it, but didn't have time to think about it. Charmander vanished into the ball, and Gina realized it, with a sinking sensation in her gut. She'd just had, and lost, her very first Pokémon battle.

"That was pathetic," Amaris said, frowning at Squirtle as he recalled it. Gina knew he was talking about her, even though it sounded as if he was referring to her Charmander's performance.

Gina just wanted to get out of there. She turned over a few marks to Amaris for his win, which he accepted with an eye roll. Then she turned and started off towards Professor Drake's lab. No one else was in line now, and she could get Charmander healed there. It wounded her deeply to know that Amaris was watching her run to his own uncle for treatment after her defeat.

The Pokéball felt different in her hand now. The light tingle that she'd mistakenly thought of as magical earlier did not seem so anymore. Now it just seemed like the hum of one very angry Pokémon buzzing about inside its entrapment, waiting impatiently for the next fight, and its next opportunity to utterly embarrass her again.

* * *

"Well, you're definitely not the first one to come here," the professor said as he handed Gina a paper cup of lemonade, which seemed like all there was to drink in Pallet Town right now. "People have been battling left and right today."

"Mmm," Gina muttered noncommittally, sipping from her cup. They shared more silence as her Pokémon, along with quite a few more, sat in the strange rejuvenation machine. After a moment, Professor Drake spoke up again.

"So, I take it Amaris was the one with whom you battled?"

"Gee," Gina said, not meaning to sound so sarcastic, "Whatever gave you that idea?"

Professor Drake smiled a little, and Gina could not find the meaning behind the expression. "Well, he _had _been waiting around for about an hour for you to be done getting your starter."

Gina frowned at the professor, a little baffled. "I thought he'd have wanted to just leave already, or fight as many people as possible."

"Nope," the professor said, checking on some Pokéballs and removing a few. He punched in numbers to a wall of switches and blinking lights, then came over to Gina again. "He's been, I suppose you could say 'lying in wait,' specifically for you."

Gina felt like the professor was implying something, but she had no idea what. "Good to know I'm his favorite person to torment," she grumbled, knowing that talking badly about the professor's nephew wasn't very mature, but not caring.

"Yes, well, Amaris does know what he wants," he said vaguely. "He'll be heading out soon too, I expect. Maybe after lunch."

_Of course, _Gina thought. _Since that's when I'm planning to leave. He has to unknowingly ruin everything for me, after all. _She was still enormously sore about the tarnishing of her first meeting with Charmander and would not be forgetting that any time soon.

Gina sighed and let herself feel miserably sorry for herself for a few more moments. In that span of time she watched trainers come in and claim their Pokéballs from Professor Drake's aides. She couldn't help growling softly under her breath whenever someone claimed a Squirtle. Finally Gina got up when Professor Drake motioned to her that her Pokémon was ready.

"So," he said, handing it to her, "you have one with a temper issue?"

"Oh, yeah," Gina said, sighing. "That's an understatement."

"They do tend to oversimplify the training process in a lot of books and movies," Professor Drake said, shaking his head. "Pokémon training takes a lot more work than is given credit to it."

"I'm starting to get that," Gina said, trying not to sound sulky and glum. "Well, do you have any final pointers?"

"All I can say is, treat your Pokémon like your equal. The more superior you behave to it…" Professor Drake trailed off, taking a chart and running his finger across it. "Ah. You have a male Charmander. Well, the more superior you behave to him, the less he will like you. Try to come to your own understanding... and remember, reinforcing positive actions is always a good place to start."

"Hah," Gina said. "Hopefully Charmander will actually _have_ some positive actions for me to reinforce." She smiled at him though. "Thanks."

"No problem, Gina," he said, smiling and waving over another boy to return his Bulbasaur. "Oh, and," he began, hitting a few more buttons on the wall, then turning back to her, "Try not to let Amaris get to you too much."

Gina instead had to try not to openly grimace at the mention of the Professor's nephew. "Um... yeah," she said, unable to think of a better reply.

Professor Drake smiled one of those very knowing adult smiles, the kind that most other adults donned on her a lot but he rarely did. Gina frowned at him a little, but shrugged it off and headed out through the double-doors into the late afternoon, ready for what came next. Her bags were already packed, and all that was left was lunch and a very difficult goodbye.

After Gina double-checked the bags in her room, she found herself with a strange spot of anxiety she had not expected to feel. She dawdled, not wanting to face saying goodbye to her mother and starting off into the world. Through her window she could see many of the remaining trainers who had not left earlier in the day trailing out onto Route 1.

There was a knock at her door, and Gina knew it was no use. She'd been looking forward to this day her whole life, and there was no way her mom would really believe she would stall unless something was wrong. "Come in."

Gina thought she'd be able to keep it together fairly well, but just the tentative look on her mom's face did her in. She suddenly had to blink very rapidly and fight back a choking feeling in her throat, instantaneous emotional reactions that overwhelmed her. Her mom picked up on it and, bless her, made frantic and comical fanning motions at her own face. "No! No, no, stop that!" she said, laughing through her near-tears. "You'll get me started!"

Gina burst out laughing, glad the awkwardness had been cut, and gave her mother a hug. "Y'know how you've been asking me all week if I'm nervous? I am now."

"If I was any other mom, you know I'd be saying, 'oh, honey, you don't have to go! No one's forcing you!'" Gina smiled up at her and they took a short step back. "But I know you wouldn't forgive yourself if you didn't at least try for this."

Gina was not doing a good job keeping her composure. "Thanks, mom. Love you."

"Love you too. Now, come on. Lunch before I have to go to work."

* * *

Somehow Gina thought that after the first ten minutes of walking down Route 1, the excitement would wear off a little. So far she had been wrong. It felt like she'd given herself a steady drip of coffee through an IV. Every little thing seemed to be amazing, and it was even more amazing that she was walking this walk alone.

One thing she hadn't been prepared for was all the choices that lay before her. She'd assumed her path would be very linear and predictable: Viridian, Pewter, Cerulean, Vermillion, Celadon, Saffron, Fuchsia, Cinnabar, and back to Viridian. That was sort of "The Order," an unspoken dotted line trail that was supposed to spell success for trainers. Of course one could always go out of order, but she suspected few did.

It really wasn't that simple, though. Gina had to make five decisions in the span of ten minutes regarding her journey. Should she avoid the grass and get to Viridian first, to buy Pokéballs? Was she gutsy enough to battle wild Pokémon just for experience, and run the risk of Charmander disobeying? If she needed to heal it up, should she go back to Pallet (something she didn't really want) or forge forward to Viridian? How long should she linger in Route 1? Would she really be able to resist the Viridian City Gym when she saw it?

Gina shook her head. This trainer business was a lot of action, decisiveness, and boldness. She could tell she'd get tired of all the questions soon, but would not grow tired of her newfound freedom.

Forty-five minutes and one random Pidgey attack later, Gina arrived in Viridian.

Viridian City really was much larger than Pallet Town. Gina had visited on occasion with her mother, but had never been there alone. Now that she wasn't merely tagging along for a shopping trip she felt a sudden rush of freedom. She was truly able to do whatever the heck she wanted.

First thing was first; the PokéMart called to her.

The man working the counter sort of fell short of her expectations. She had expected a bright-eyed, helpful worker, ready to give her as much friendly advice as merchandise. He seemed exhausted and zombie-like though, and Gina found very soon that he was no good for conversation. He shortchanged her for her five Pokéballs and she had to show him the $1 mark he had given her in place of the $10 mark she should have gotten. He even glared at her for a second, like he suspected her of pulling a fast one on him, but eventually gave her the proper change. Gina had been sort of eager to buy Antidotes and Potions as well, but decided she should wait until this guy was replaced by someone better on a different shift.

All-in-all, Viridian was full of exhausted people. It took Gina a while to remember that virtually all of the people who had come flooding into Pallet last week were rooming in Viridian for as much as a month beforehand. No wonder this city seemed utterly unimpressed with all the new trainers like herself. She supposed she should feel lucky she wasn't getting pelted with rocks.

Still undecided about how long she would stay here, Gina wound up checking into the bright green Pokémon Center. She couldn't decide if she liked the decor or wanted to puke when she saw it. The receptionist gave her a key-chain with the number fifteen in the center of a smiling Chansey's belly. "You're in luck, a lot of the new trainers have skipped us altogether and moved on to the Forest already."

Gina thanked the woman and dropped her things off. It was around there that the glamor of her journey started to wear off, just a little, in the wake of how endless her opportunities were. On one hand, it was freaking fantastic. On the other, she could not do much else other than sit there and be overwhelmed by how _much _she still had ahead of her. After a few moments of zoning out and absorbing it, Gina got up and packed a smaller bag with only the necessities: her five Pokéballs, a single spray bottle of Potion, a bottle of drinking water, her Pokédex and of course, Charmander. Gina felt a squirm of dread when she looked at his Pokéball. The Pidgey attack had gone well enough, but he seemed to have just wanted to blow off steam then. She wondered how he would handle now.

Back out in Route 1, Gina soon found out.

"Dammit! I said freaking Leer! _Leer!_ Do you even know what that _is?_ God!"

Charmander snorted steam out of its nostrils and actually rolled its eyes at her before proceeding to use Scratch attack on the female Nidoran instead. Gina felt like throwing something. She recalled Charmander before he could do more damage to the thing, which was looking scuffed up and dazed. Gina then aimed to the ground right beside the Pokémon and tossed the ball (a little too lightly as she found out.) It did not deploy and the Nidoran looked ready to make a break for it. Gina threw another much harder, and it hit the ground beside the Nidoran and absorbed it in red light. She couldn't see the light on the front of the Pokéball, but after waiting the allotted thirty seconds, and then another three full minutes, she approached it cautiously. It would be just like her to pick up the ball, thinking she had succeeded, and then suddenly have an armful of frantic, flailing Nidoran.

But no, it had been caught as far as she could tell. This was not the way she had pictured this moment. In her head she had imagined striking a pose and holding the Pokéball triumphantly to the sky, a big grin on her face. Lens flare would have hit the chrome at just the right angle and theme music would have started up in the background. Then for good measure, somewhere in the world, someone would kick Amaris in the gut.

Instead Gina fumbled to pull out her Pokédex, dropped it, picked it back up, and flipped it open. There were three notifications, and she clicked the topmost one that had an exclamation point beside it. "Nidoran (female) has been caught!" Gina's face broke into her first genuine, ridiculous grin since before her defeat by Amaris.

The second notification was from her mom. It was a text message that said: "Good luck, honey! This cost me 15 cents, so use only for emergencies. Call me from PKMN Centers or write, okay? 3 you!"

The third was a broadcast message from Professor Drake. "To all trainers: remember that the help menu is at the bottom of the scroll bar. Also, call Tech Support in your phone book if you need help. The phone book is the icon in the upper left. I'm swamped with calls and I can't help you all!"

Gina laughed and scrolled over to her Pokédex to read the information on Nidoran. There was a stunning amount of data, but she was more interested in the specific Nidoran she had just captured. It was fifteen pounds, a foot tall, and categorized as level four. It knew Growl and Tackle. Gina could not stop smiling.

While she was smiling, a Rattata attacked and she almost sent out her near-collapse Nidoran instead of Charmander. Charmander kicked its ass without allowing Gina to even consider catching the thing.

It was going to be a long journey.


	4. Grar :Jason:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 4: Grar.

(Jason Fremont)

Jason usually did not believe that one could have "too much fun." In his book, there was no such thing. Now, however, he was starting to admit that this kind of glee might wind up being hazardous to his health.

He'd been crashing around in the underbrush of Route 2 to the north of Viridian for a while, but so far he hadn't managed to encounter a single wild Pokémon. He'd been trying for almost a full day, but still nothing could sully his mood. Just the fact that he had been tromping around outdoors looking for them was sheer victory in his eyes. There was no more school, no homework, no struggling not to fall asleep in lessons, no accidentally picking a fight with the brother of the biggest, meanest girl in his class. There were countless reasons to be thrilled that he was as far away from Saffron City as he could get without flying over to Cinnabar Island.

Thinking about Cinnabar almost made him skip on the spot. It was too much to handle.

Another hour of stomping around in the underbrush still yielded no results though, and Jason was getting tired. He started the short walk back into Viridian City to grab something to eat.

Marco had headed out into the forest a while ago, and Jason had bid him farewell. Jason desperately wanted to go into the forest too, but he somehow could not bring himself to plow through there without at least seeing his starter in a battle first.

This was part of the reason he was so eager to find something to beat the tar out of. Jason firmly believed all trainers should meet their Pokémon for the first time in a battle setting. It would show Bulbasaur that Jason was the alpha in this situation, and set up a good rapport for them going forward. A Pokémon was hardwired to want to fight, but was also very amenable to taking orders from humans. It always fascinated Jason that Pokémon had grown alongside humans in this way; even a detail as small as Pidgeys making wonderful couriers, or Growlithes serving as great guard dogs surprised Jason. Pokémon were, after all, so much _cooler _than people. Why they would bother humoring Jason's species, he'd never know.

Jason ordered a burger from a hole-in-the-wall grill, and was pleasantly surprised by its utter greasiness. He listened to the people next to him at the bar commiserate about their Pokémon experiences.

"I swear, my Squirtle actually fell asleep when I was trying to train it! I was lucky there were no wild Pokémon around at the time. I just wanted to see its moves and it wouldn't even do _that_ for me!"

Jason shook his head and took a gulp of his vanilla milkshake. _Typical_, he thought. _These__ guys__ clearly __don__'__t__ know __the__ first__ thing__ about __training._

"Man, you think _you__'__ve_ got it bad? My Bulbasaur pelted me with leaves. I should be happy it's at least trying to learn Razor Leaf, but dang!" Jason, interested in the Bulbasuar issue, turned his head slightly just in time to see the guy lift up his shirt. Jason was very confused for a moment before he saw a spattering of band-aids all across him. He felt his eyebrows raise high across his forehead at the sight.

"Are you kidding me? Your _Pokémon _did that to you? What the heck?"

"I know! Do you think that Drake guy gave us a bad batch?"

Jason paid for his food with a frown and requested a to-go container. Soon he was walking down the dirt paths of southern Viridian near Route 1, his half-finished milkshake in one hand and the bag containing his burger and fries in the other. He was still fairly confident that the unfortunate souls in the diner had merely made bad mistakes in training. Jason wracked his brain for the right things to do, but all he could remember in the blistering sun with a full stomach was the tidbit about seeing your Pokémon for the first time in a battle setting. There were so many different takes on training it wasn't even funny. The namby-pamby people who were all for discontinuing Pokémon training (hah, fat chance) believed that Pokémon needed to be pampered like pets, kept indoors, and fed a balanced diet of Pokéchow in between their salon appointments. It made Jason nauseous.

Then of course, there were those who refused to see their team anywhere _but _in battle, and Jason didn't think that was any fun. He'd hate to be cooped up in a little metal sphere, only brought out for the occasional fight. Jason planned to play fetch with his Pokémon, let them fly around for exercise, and of course, walk around town with them just to show off. Pokéballs, in his eyes, should be used only for the convenience of traveling down various Routes.

While Jason was walking near the entrance of town, someone tapped him on the shoulder. He was lost in thought and almost dropped his milkshake, turning around to see a somewhat nervous-looking kid with dark eyes and mussed-up black hair.

"What's up?" Jason asked, a second before he realized this could be an invitation to battle.

"I'm not so sure how to do this, but, do you want to battle? Or something?"

It was so awkward. Jason was sure he pulled a face, but he tried to hide his disappointment. "Hell yeah!" he said, trying to inject some gusto and flare into this sad situation. "Bring it."

The kid looked a little intimidated by his outburst, and took a few steps back to clear some space. Jason put his food down on the grass beside him and unclipped Bulbasaur's Pokéball from his belt.

_Okay __buddy, _he thought to the ball. _Here __we __go.__ Please __don__'__t__ Razor __Leaf __me._

Jason could have pressed the button on his Pokéball, the way most people did these days, but he instead chose to throw the ball down to the ground. It deployed, thankfully—he would have looked pretty dumb if it hadn't—and his opponent fumbled with his own. Red light erupted from Jason's, and a second later his Bulbasaur appeared. Jason's face split into a huge grin as his Pokémon turned to face front, automatically knowing what to do.

The other kid actually put his Pokéball down on the ground, faced it towards Bulbasaur, and pressed the button that way. The boy then leaped back from it, as if afraid it would explode. Jason definitely made a face that time.

It turned out to be a Weedle, of all things. Jason wasn't sure if he should be offended or not. The guy had another Pokéball attached to his belt though, so it was possible this was just a warm-up.

Jason waited. He was pretty sure his opponent was turning red now. He cleared his throat.

"Um… challenger attacks first?" the guy said, making it sound like a question somehow even though it was general knowledge.

"Uh-huh," Jason responded, giving the guy a weird look. This was so lame.

"Okay." Was it just Jason, or did the Weedle look as nervous as its trainer? "In that case, I'm going to start the battle and command Weedle to use Poison Sting."

Jason felt a withering feeling of pity in his chest. That battle command had been pathetic. Somehow Weedle had pulled the information "Poison Sting" out of that rambling sentence, and it did its gung-ho best to leap forward and hit Bulbasaur. Jason waited, on the edge of his proverbial seat, to see how Bulbasaur would react.

The Weedle was not very fast. Bulbasaur remained in place—perhaps he was playing hardball.

The Weedle was very close now. Bulbasaur could move aside at any moment.

Then the sting hit, and Bulbasaur moved his shoulder slightly, as if in annoyance. That was the only action he made. Jason had no idea what his face was doing now.

"Uh…" he said, utterly thrown off. "Bulbasaur, Tackle!"

Bulbasaur took a moment to stretch, a bizarre thing to see. The Weedle, meanwhile, was looking very, very discouraged. It had no real facial expression, so to speak, but Jason could tell the thing was nervous. Meanwhile his Bulbasaur was doing some Pokémon version of yoga, and Jason's opponent was looking at him with wide eyes as if to say "now what?"

This was _so _not how he had imagined his first battle.

Finally Bulbasaur was done stretching out his hamstrings, and started a galloping dash towards Weedle. The Weedle went to dodge—Jason could not believe a worm was actively trying to evade while his own Pokémon had not even attempted to—but Bulbasaur veered to catch it. He lowered his head and tossed Weedle up into the air, then watched as it made its way back down to earth with a small thud.

"Uh, I am now going to take my Pokéball, and ask Weedle to return." The kid thrust the Pokéball out towards Weedle and hit the button, still looking terrified of the technology he held. Weedle was recalled and Jason fought a twitch that was developing under his eye. This guy really had to stop narrating everything.

"Now I am going to send out—"

"Please, just do it."

"Squirtle," the guy said, now definitely red. Jason took a deep breath to zen himself out, then said, "Kay, Bulbasaur, Growl!" He was a little curious to see this move.

Bulbasaur sighed. For a second, Jason thought _that _had been his Growl attack. Then Bulbasaur hunkered down to the ground, and uttered a deadpan sound that could only be described as: "grar."

Jason had no words in his vocabulary for how confused he was.

"I am now—" at the look on Jason's face, his opponent stopped his play-by-play mid-sentence. "I… Squirtle, Tackle?"

The Squirtle moved forward, then paused, as if doubting the validity of that command since it had sounded so much like a question. Then it made up its mind and charged Bulbasaur, apparently not at all intimidated by the monotone "grar."

Jason watched in horror as Bulbasaur _sat __there __again _and took the full brunt of the attack. Jason expected to hear his Pokédex start beeping, but it was not doing anything so far. He took that moment to pull it out and execute a "rookie move" that he had sworn he would never do. He peered through the viewfinder on his Dex to get information about the battle. Bulbasaur was right around half-health, and Squirtle, of course, was at full. While he looked through the lens he said, "Tackle!" to Bulbasaur, vowing silently to never, ever use Growl again.

Bulbasaur charged, and Squirtle evaded. "Tackle!" his opponent shouted. Jason was pleased to see the boy was getting marginally more lively. Bulbasaur rolled awkwardly out of the way, a very odd move for a Pokémon with a plant on his back. Squirtle sure seemed confused.

"Tackle again," Jason commanded, and watched as Bulbasaur landed this hit properly. Squirtle's health dropped, but Jason was getting worried. Sure enough, the next Tackle hit Bulbasaur head-on, and then the Pokédex started beeping. It was a shameful sound; Jason wondered if there was a way he could disable it.

He could choose back down and fork over some marks now, but something in him wouldn't allow it. "Tackle!" he shouted again, pocketing his still-beeping Dex even though he didn't expect this battle to last another turn.

Something strange happened. Bulbasaur took many steps back, hunkered down again the way he had during Growl, and Squirtle suddenly had a strange look on its face. Bulbasaur didn't give it another second and charged full force, knocking the wind out of the Water-type and slamming it into the ground. There was a "bweeeooop" sound from Jason's pocket. He fumbled to yank out the Pokédex, hardly believing it. That was the "this Pokémon can no longer fight" sound. Bulbasaur snorted slightly, looking much more alert than he had throughout this whole fight.

His opponent looked shaken and recalled Squirtle with a surprising lack of narration. "Um," he said, looking scared. "Do I have to send out Weedle again?"

"… No," Jason said, frowning. "I mean, I'm not gonna force you or anything."

"Okay," the kid said, digging around in his pockets and producing some marks for Jason. Jason felt sort of bad accepting them, but figured he'd do more damage to his ego if he didn't take them. The guy ran off the second the exchange was made and Jason looked down at Bulbasaur, dumbfounded.

His Pokémon looked up at him with strange fuchsia-colored eyes, and though he didn't have an eyebrow to speak of, Jason thought maybe he raised one at him anyway. He keyed through his Dex to look up information about Bulbasaur's combat.

_When in dire situations, this Bulbasaur is likely to show a heightened attack strength and a slight boost to all his stats._

Jason raised his eyebrow back at Bulbasaur, who sat down and did more Poké-stretching. "Coulda said so," he muttered.

* * *

Not long after that Jason decided to simply forego Viridian and its awkward trainers altogether. He ate breakfast at a divey bar that had fantastic chili cheese fries, packed his bags and checked out of his room at the Pokémon Center. The woman sighed as she signed him out, and shook her head once. Jason wondered what that was all about, and he'd had to fight back the impulse to ask her what she was thinking.

The path to the Viridian Forest was short enough, and Jason found himself glaring out into the tall grass of Route 2 as he passed it by. Why wild Pokémon were so intent on avoiding him was simply beyond him. He waited for the slow and rattly automatic doors to swish open and crossed into an air conditioned little building with cushy chairs and bookshelves full of Pokémon reference material. It was a strange little pit stop, the last one before the forest, and Jason made a mental note to come back here at some point and check out their books and vending machines. For now he was too intent on making it through to Pewter City.

The forest wasn't all that scary. He'd heard that this was where a lot of trainers experienced their first loss of nerve, but Jason couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Granted it was still daylight outside, so that could have had something to do with it. He sighed, ran a hand through his spiked blond hair, and pulled Bulbasaur's Pokéball off his belt. When his companion materialized before him he looked sleepy and malcontent, as if Jason had interrupted him dozing. Bulbasaur yawned and looked grumpily up at him.

"Figured you might want to get some exercise, since you're so keen on stretching and all."

As if Jason had reminded him, Bulbasaur began to stretch his legs out, crouching down like a dog ready to play. Then he stretched forward onto his front legs and pressed himself forward like a mermaid sunning on a rock. Jason sighed.

"Walking time is now," he said, trying to sound stern and firm. He headed out, not waiting to see if Bulbasaur would follow. Twenty paces in he caved and turned around to check. It was a good thing too, since Bulbasaur was still stretching and showed no signs of following Jason at all. Jason glared at the back of his plant.

"Come _on! _I didn't bring you out so you could do Pilates! Move, move, move!"

Bulbasaur yawned again and lay down, blinking slowly at Jason as if to say "_Stop__ and __smell __the __flowers__ maaan!_" Jason fumbled with his Pokéball.

"You're going back in here if you don't start moving."

Bulbasaur took a deep breath and heaved a heavy sigh, then got up and began a very slow stroll down the path. Jason went faster, but found that "slow and steady" was the only speed Bulbasaur seemed to know. Jason groaned and made faces at Bulbasaur, but his Pokémon was simply unflappable. It was not long before he took to jogging circles around him out of sheer annoyance.

This was how his second opponent came across him. The girl frowned at him, freezing in her tracks and then quickly taking a few steps back. "Um..."

Jason looked up and abruptly stopped circling his Pokémon. Bulbasaur continued and bumped gently into his leg. "Hey," Jason said, trying not to sound surprised.

"Hi," she said, still with a wary look. "So, uh, you a trainer?"

"Mmhmm," Jason said, slipping his hands in his pockets in a vain attempt to look casual. "Pallet Initiative. You?"

"Uh, yeah," she said. "You let your Pokémon out when you're not battling?"

"Oh, yeah," Jason said, making it sound like he did this all the time. Bulbasaur gave him a remote, skeptical look. "He loves it." His Pokemon made a sound like "feh."

"Ah, cool." The girl looked to the left, then back at Jason, and then to the left again. Jason also looked to her left, wondering if anything interesting was happening over there. "So, wanna battle?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," he said, taking those few automatic steps backwards. He desperately hoped this battle would not be as horrendously awkward as his first one. Jason glanced down at her Pokébelt out of curiosity, and felt a sudden weird surge of fear. He wasn't well-versed with fear, which very frequently lead him into injuries, accidents, and mistakes. Yet somehow the mere sight of five Pokéballs shining on her belt, each one labelled with a different number, filled him with dull dread. His belt was very empty, with only Bulbasaur's Pokéball. Meanwhile his zenned-out starter loafed around in front of him. _Crap, _Jason thought.

The girl sent out a Pidgey, and Jason glanced nervously at Bulbasaur. He seemed eager for once though, and pawed at the dirt, ready. The girl didn't ask him what to do, thank God. "Gust!" she said, jabbing her finger forward. The small bird took to the air and flapped its wings furiously.

Jason had to admit, this attack intrigued and baffled him and he was eager to see it live. He'd never understood how _air _could hurt a Pokémon. Jason quickly found out it was not the actual air that did the damage. If anything, this attack should be called Flying Debris. Bulbasaur was pelted with rocks, sticks, leaves and other things that were lying around. It seemed more of a nuisance than anything, but it still tired out his Pokémon a little resisting it. Jason himself received a few nicks and scrapes from residual bits of nature.

"Tackle!" Jason demanded, and Bulbasaur jumped shockingly high in the air and head-butted the Pidgey. Pidgey lost air and hit the ground, then struggled upright once more. The girl scowled and used Gust again, but Bulbasaur hunkered down, smarter this time around, and avoided much of the damage. The next Tackle took Pidgey out of the battle, and Jason whooped and pumped his fist in the air. Bulbasaur calmly rolled his shoulders out.

The next Pokémon the girl sent out was a Rattata, and Jason felt a twinge of jealousy. Maybe this girl had captured all the wild Pokémon in Routes 1 and 2, and that was why there were none left for him. It was his turn to start this battle, and he had Bulbasaur use Tackle once more, still sticking by his decision to boycott Growl forever.

Bulbasaur shot forward, but the rat evaded the attack. Jason cursed softly under his breath. _Frickin' speedy purple thing._

"Tail Whip!" the girl shouted.

This was yet another attack that Jason couldn't wrap his mind around, and he watched eagerly to see how this could possibly be effective. Rattata shot forward, faking Bulbasaur out. Even Jason took a step back out of shock. Rattata did a somersault and shot its tail quickly out in front of Bulbasaur, and his Pokémon flinched from the near-contact. Rattata bounded back into place and crouched, whipping its tail back and forth in agitation. The body language was pure aggression, and Bulbasaur seemed a bit more wary. "Tackle!" Jason said again.

Bulbasaur had a second of hesitation, but tore forward with renewed energy, and this time he hit target. Bulbasaur clipped the Rattata and sent it off in a different direction. Rattata rolled back up to its feet and did its own Tackle when its trainer gave the order. Bulbasaur was not able to dodge, and winced from the impact. Jason fought the urge to whip out his Pokédex again. He desperately wanted to learn how to gauge his team's health by look and feel alone. "Tackle," he ordered again, and watched with satisfaction as Bulbasaur carried out his order.

"Return," the girl said, giving Rattata a forewarning before she aimed her red laser and recalled it. She took her time re-attaching it to her belt and plucked off a different Pokéball. When she chucked it out onto the battlefield, out popped another Bulbasaur.

Jason had been curious to see another Bulbasaur, and was pleased to spot at once that he would definitely be able to tell his apart from hers. For one, the demeanor was totally different. Hers was fierce and irritated, glaring and fidgeting as it stared them down. It also had different spot patterns and darker eyes, more of a blood red than his own Pokemon's magenta ones.

It was Jason's turn again. "Tackle!" he demanded, and the Bulbasaur versus Bulbasaur battle began.

Jason realized he was in trouble about a minute into the fight. His Bulbasaur was pretty good, but hers had more of an edge to it. It sucked at dodging, which worked to his favor, but its attacks were downright brutal. Jason felt the blood rising in his face, part anger and part shame. His Pokemon was starting to look a little worse for the wear, and hers was still going strong. Then there was the fact that her belt still had another two Pokéballs left. Jason grit his teeth, considering calling the fight off.

"You can forfeit, you know," the girl said, with just the faintest hint of smugness in her voice. Jason felt his blood boil. "I mean, if you want."

"Not a chance," he growled back, and ordered another foolhardy Tackle. It turned out to be the last move of this battle; the girl ordered her final assault on his Pokémon, and Bulbasaur, too tired to move out of the way, took a hit to the chest head-on and rolled backwards.

The beeping that had started in his Pokédex last round changed sound to the dreaded "bweeeooop." Jason groaned as he dug for his money. He had just barely managed to hand it to the girl when he felt a weird warmth from his pocket. She stepped back from him at once and shook her head.

"Should have given up," she said, actually sounding sympathetic now. "I've had that happen to me, and it's not fun."

The words "had what?" were almost out of his mouth when Jason felt it happening. The warmth spread from his pocket to his thigh. It raced up and down and filled him with static electricity, and Jason suddenly found every nerve ending on his body alive with tingles. _What __the__ hell!_ was his last coherent thought before the forest dissolved around him.

A second later Jason emerged from wherever the hell he had gone, feeling like he had been dunked in ice water and energetically tickled all over his body. He twitched and recoiled as if from a million poking fingers. The end result was a weird little dance.

When he had recovered he glanced around to make sure no one had seen that. Then he checked his Pokéball to make sure Bulbasaur was inside it. It was, and it was also pretty unconscious. Feeling like the cruelest trainer in the world, Jason slid from his place on a bench at the side of Viridian's Pokémon Center and started his way around to the front. He glanced up as he walked and saw a sign above the bench that said "Trainer landing area — keep clear." Jason groaned and tried not to flush bright red as he slunked his way in through the Center doors. The receptionist who had shaken her head at him was still there. He hadn't been gone more than an hour.

"I saved your room key for you," she said, her kindness somehow sounding nagging to Jason's ears. "Number sixteen, right? I'll take your Pokémon for you."

"Thanks," Jason grumbled with the precise flat tone of Bulbasaur's "grar."


	5. Good Influences :Gina:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 5: Good Influences

(Gina Ikeda)

Gina continued to take her time in Viridian, watching many of the other trainers head off to Pewter City. Finn passed through the Center, and Gina had lunch with him and a few other familiar faces from Pallet before they went on their way. It wasn't feeling so cramped in Viridian City anymore as the week wore on, and Gina enjoyed the peace.

Though she hated to admit it, Gina did very much need the money that had been wired to her New Trainer Initiative account via her Pokédex. She had a tidy sum of credit to use at "a number of locations," whatever that meant. There were also two Viridian City banks where she could get actual cash, both of which had been hopelessly busy until now. Gina knew she wouldn't be spending it all frivolously though; for one thing, her mom apparently would be getting mailed statements about how she was using her credit. For another, Gina could only take out 20 marks of hard cash per week for now, which was usually the money with which trainers gambled. Gina had never been fond of this tradition, but didn't want to make waves.

One unexpected expense was PokéChow. In spite of being very affordable, it was really starting to eat a hole in her funds. Her team had to eat, of course; storing them as data in the PC (a concept that had frankly always terrified her) was not an option she liked. Charmander was neutral towards PokéChow in general, much preferring to try his hand at sneaking human food off Gina's plate when it thought she was distracted. It became a little battle between them during meal times. Nidoran, on the other hand, seemed to genuinely enjoy the food and gave Gina no trouble one way or another. She could only hope Nidoran's mellowness would eventually rub off on Charmander.

Gina was on her way to grab something to eat when she noticed the kids crouching behind the hedges near the main entrance to the city. They had "troublemaker" written all over them—the huddling, stifled giggling, and bags of who-knew-what clutched in their hands. Gina slowed a little to squint over at them, trying to see if she recognized any faces from the Initiative. They looked a little young, though; they were most likely Viridian City residents. Gina considered telling someone that they seemed to be up to something.

While she was debating this a boy appeared on Route 1 and began making his weary way towards the city entrance. Gina got a bad feeling a split second before the crouching kids reared up, opened their bags, and struck. The poor newcomer had no time to react; he was soon being pelted with fist-sized paintballs. In a matter of seconds his clothing, skin and hair was an explosion of hot pink, construction vest yellow and eye-offending green. Gina just stood there with her mouth open, and when she had recovered enough to head over to the scene of the attack the kids split in different directions, clutching their stomachs in peals of laughter.

The victim was in as much shock as Gina. She hesitated, wondering if she should just keep walking and pretend she hadn't seen. Having gaping onlookers surely wouldn't help her own wounded pride in that situation. After a moment though, she headed over, wearing a tentative look of _what the hell?_

"Um… jeez, wow. You alright?" she asked.

"I think so," the guy said, shaking his head and wiping away gooey paint dripping dangerously close to his eye. "Some welcoming committee."

"No kidding," Gina said. "Uh, let's go to the Pokémon Center. You can get washed up there."

* * *

It wasn't long before Gina and the boy, whose name was Jason, were sharing drinks at the Center's little café. Jason was in a clean set of clothes and had a towel draped over his drying blond hair. They were waiting on their food and Jason was animatedly going over the frustrations of his past few days. Ordinarily people who babbled on and on irritated Gina, but she couldn't help laughing at nearly every sentence that came out of his mouth. He had a sort of natural gift for storytelling, and Gina found that trying to drink her cocoa was a perilous venture, as she never knew when the next burst of laughter would interrupt her.

"I mean, come _on! _You should have seen this guy! He was the most awkward person I have ever met in my life, it was like he was one of those golf announcers. 'I will now request that my Squirtle perform the Tackle attack. Permission to activate my Pokéball and send out my level four Bug-type Pokémon, Weedle?'"

"No," Gina said, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand and chuckling. "No _way_. He did not really talk like that."

"Well, it was almost as bad," Jason said. "I think that battle traumatized him for life."

"Man, well, at least you won your first battle," Gina pointed out. "This jerk-wad from my hometown beat me practically the second I stepped out of the labs."

"Where're you from?" Jason asked, something they somehow hadn't managed share in their half hour of seemingly nonstop talk.

"Pallet," Gina said, and Jason grinned.

"Oh, sweet! Great Initiative you guys put on."

"Thanks! Took a lot of planning."

"So, who's the guy who fought you?"

"You might've seen him around, his name is Amaris Drake, the professor's nephew."

"Ahhh that guy. Reddish hair, yeah?" Gina nodded to him. "He did seem like he had an attitude problem. What was with him heading the line at the—"

"_I know!_ We were all complaining about that at the back, what the heck?"

"Right!"

This was how their conversation had gone basically the entire time. They wound up interrupting each other excitedly when they found the same wavelength, which was often. Gina realized that, though being interrupted was a pet peeve of hers, she didn't mind it while she and Jason were talking. Gina made an off-color comment about Amaris and Jason snorted into his hot chocolate. She crowed in triumph that she had now almost killed _him_ with his beverage for a change.

Their food came out then, and they dug in furiously. Jason had ordered spaghetti and meatballs while Gina had preferred the soup of the day with grilled cheese on the side. Halfway through they wound up sharing their food, tempted by each other's meal.

"What's your starter?" Jason asked, another question that was left strangely late in their conversation.

"Charmander," Gina said, pausing in the rapid inhaling of her food. Jason made a face.

"Ahh, man! Here I was thinking I'd never have a type disadvantage by picking Bulbasaur."

"Hah, no such luck. There _are _some people still nuts enough to pick a Fire starter."

"Well, Charmander _does _turn into Charizard, and he's an 8.8 on the Agrippa Stat Scale…" Jason allowed, and Gina jumped in with, "_exactly_."

They ate for a while longer before Jason spoke up again. "So, uh, have you been having any trouble, sort of, with your starter?"

Gina glanced over at her bag, where her Pokéballs were. She was glad Charmander and Nidoran had already eaten and weren't going to hear her talking about them. "Well…"

The way she said it must have tipped him off, because Jason heaved a sigh. "Me too. Does yours have a motivation problem or something?"

"Hah, the opposite," Gina said, shaking her head and turning back to her food. "Charmander's downright vicious. Only listens to orders once in a while."

Jason seemed shocked by this. "So he's over-motivated."

"Yeah, you could say that."

"That's… weird."

"How come?" Gina asked, now curious about the personality problems that ailed his Bulbasaur.

"Well, mine is just… too relaxed." At Gina's incredulous look, Jason tried again. "I mean, he just sits there and takes hits that he definitely could dodge. Also takes time to do stretches between every move... won't hurry to do anything, ever."

Gina frowned. "That seems sort of out-of-character for most Pokémon."

"Tell me about it," Jason said, sighing. Then he grinned and pulled a Pokéball off his belt. "Hey, we should see if they become friends. Maybe they can be good influences on each other."

Soon Charmander and Bulbasaur were sitting together on the weird meshy mats beside Gina and Jason's table, conversing in quiet sounds. Gina and Jason were trying not to be too obvious as they watched them talk.

"It's so cool that they can all understand each other's language. It's nuts."

"Yeah," Gina said, subtly sipping her refill of cocoa while watching Charmander make a flippant gesture with its paw. "Professor Drake is studying Pokémon language... that's his main field, really."

"Language? Like, making a Poké-dictionary or something?"

"Kinda!" Gina smiled. Jason had a way of putting "Poké-" in front of any word imaginable. Earlier he had ordered a Poké-chino from the cafe girl, which had confused her immensely while Gina tried not to laugh. "Mainly Professor Drake wants to figure out a way for humans to actually talk with their Pokémon."

"Oh, dude! That's badass!" Jason stared over at Bulbasaur intently, as if trying to read his mind. "I wonder what they'd say to us. I bet Pokémon talk smack about their trainers all the time."

As if on cue, Bulbasaur and Charmander glanced over at Jason and Gina for a moment, then went back to their quiet talk. Jason and Gina exchanged a look and made an unspoken vow to keep their griping to a minimum from then on—at least while their Pokémon were out.

* * *

"Okay, so _what _were you saying about not being able—"

"I swear, I must sweat Repel out of my pores or something! Why do they all love _you_?"

"You call this _love?_"

Gina and Jason were taking a breather after their ninth consecutive wild Pokémon encounter at the very outskirts of the Viridian Forest. Jason had complained about his inability to encounter Pokémon, and Gina had worried that all the wilds had been captured or scared off already. They had barely made it two feet into the grass of Route 2, however, when a small pack of Rattata charged. Ever since then it had been an hour of nonstop training until they'd gradually made their way to the shade of a big tree in the Forest.

Gina was spraying Potion on Charmander, who seemed to detest it completely. She supposed it was because Potion was a liquid, and too akin to water for her Fire-type. He fidgeted, squirmed, and tried to dodge her, and when she finally got him with it he rolled over onto the grass like a dog trying to get a smell off.

"Ugh!" Gina exclaimed as Charmander picked up a fine layer of dirt, grass and dust. "Look at you!" Charmander gave her a cheeky look and continued to roll. Gina glanced at Jason. "Do you think I should, uh, discipline him?"

"Heck if I know," Jason said, staring at Bulbasaur, who seemed to be meditating. "If it makes you feel better, you're making _me_ feel better by comparison."

"Why in the world would that make me feel better?"

"It won't." Jason gave her a cheeky grin identical to Charmander's and she threw a handful of leaves at him.

When they started heading back to the Center an hour later, they were all pretty beat. Gina let Charmander and Nidoran walk with her, as did Jason with Bulbasaur. She was spending the time looking through the viewfinder on her Pokédex and trying to figure out when her Pokémon would level up.

"My Dex is estimating him at level eight," Gina said, pretty damn pleased about this. "So, sometime fairly soon he should be able to use fire in battle... without disastrous results." Her Pokédex had just warned her against ordering Fire attacks before level nine or ten, since young Charmanders often could not control how much fire they used or aim very well. "Yikes, good advice."

"What does mine say?" Jason asked, his hands in his pockets as he walked very close behind Bulbasaur, tailgating in an attempt to make him go faster.

"Jeez, lazy! You can bust out your own Dex, you know," Gina teased, but peered through her viewfinder at Bulbasaur. It scrolled a list of Bulbasaur's moves, his health, his apparent temperature and whether or not that was normal... Gina blinked and poked around at her display, trying to sort the information in a way that made sense. "Yours is level seven, close to eight," she said. "It has a warning for you too, same basic story as mine... if you try to make Bulbasaur use Vine Whip right now he might fail pretty hardcore. Also, don't even think about Razor Leaf until much later."

Jason shuddered. "I told you about the guy in the diner—"

"... With all the leaf cuts, yeah, you did." Gina shook her head. "Hard to believe this guy is the same species as that Bulbasaur."

Bulbasaur gave her a laid-back smile and plodded along at his steady pace, seeming to recognize that he had received a compliment. Meanwhile Charmander had gone ahead and was sniffing around some hedges. Gina hoped he wouldn't scare up another wild Pokémon to battle; she was pretty tired already.

"When do you think you'll head into the forest for good?" Jason asked as Gina kept her eye on Charmander.

"'For good?' As in, never to emerge?" she asked, grinning. He made a face at her. "I guess any time. I'm kind of done with Viridian, nice as it was to be alone for a while."

"Alone? I'm offended!"

"You know what I mean!"

Jason laughed and almost tripped on Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur made a "huff" sound and Jason went around, giving up on his attempt to make him faster. "We-ell..." he managed to make it two syllables as he ran a hand through his spiky hair. "I think I might need to ask you to travel through there with me. Since y'know, I'm Repel Man and I'd like to catch something, someday."

Gina lifted her eyebrow and smiled, amused at his very roundabout way of asking for company. "I see. Well, it would be cruel of me to deprive you of my awesome services."

Jason seemed relieved not to be rejected. "Great! Let's go tomorrow."

"Ahh, well... sure," Gina replied. Even after only a day or so of hanging out with Jason, she had him pegged as a go-getter. She was about to ask him something about restocking supplies, but Charmander made a snarling _yipe!_ sound and jumped back from the bush, growling. Gina snapped her head toward him as a Nidoran emerged from the underbrush, glaring at Charmander and crouching in attack position.

"Oh!" Gina said, pulling out her Pokédex again and looking through it to confirm her suspicion. "It's a male."

"Do you want it?" Jason asked, staring hard at the violet Pokémon that was still poised before Charmander.

"Naw, I've got a female already. I can catch a male later. Go for it, Repel Man! Make a catch already!" To Charmander, Gina said, "Yo! Return."

Charmander did not obey at first, and Gina said it louder, accompanied by a slap to her thigh. It kind of hurt in hindsight. Charmander huffed steam from its nostrils, but Bulbasaur grumbled something and Charmander reluctantly yielded the battlefield to the Grass-type. "Oh, so you listen to Bulbasaur but not me? Why don't you have _Bulbasaur_ be your trainer then?"

Jason had stepped forward. "Okay buddy, hate to do this to you, but Tackle!"

Admittedly, Tackle was the only attack Bulbasaur could use at this level, but Gina did feel sorry for it as it jumped right at the very pointy, very angry Nidoran. Nidoran tried to turn its barbs toward Bulbasaur, but Bulbasaur did some fancy footwork and hit its exposed side instead. The Nidoran jumped at Bulbasaur, and Jason had to simply shout "keep it up!" as his battle order since there was no time to think of a new strategy. This Nidoran was fierce, very unlike Gina's.

Bulbasaur headbutted Nidoran in the face, something that took it off guard for a moment and allowed Bulbasaur another successful Tackle. He hit itself on a barb this time, and an angry red mark appeared on the Grass-type's skin. Jason hissed in sympathy and yanked out his Pokédex to look through the viewfinder. "Good," he said, and Gina, curious as well, brought hers out. Nidoran was down to a third of its health; it would be risky to attack again. If this was Gina's fight, though, she would risk one final attack rather than see the Pokémon burst out of the ball.

Jason seemed to be on the same wavelength. "Go easy on it!" he called to Bulbasaur, who was hit a second later with Nidoran's own Tackle. Bulbasaur actually seemed angry, or as close to angry as Gina had ever seen him, and gave Nidoran another headbutt, perhaps a hair lighter than the last one. Jason's Pokédex began to make the "neep neep neep" sound to signal that a Pokémon was ripe for the picking.

Jason yanked a Pokéball out of his bag (and a Potion, Viridian map, can of soda, and two Antidotes along the way). He hesitated, then hit the button at the front and aimed the laser carefully to Nidoran. The Pokémon was turned into digitized red and sucked up into the ball, and Gina made a halting sound of fright as Jason held it at arm's length while the red light on the center flashed.

"Put it down put it down!" she called to him, but for some insane reason he did not. Gina fought the urge to cover her eyes. As an afterthought she called, "If you get poisoned I'm not using one of my Antidotes on you!"

A second later the ball stopped flashing, and Jason hissed out, "_Yesss!_" He pumped his fist in the air and jumped around, then ran at Bulbasaur. The Pokémon's eyes widened at the sight of his trainer dashing forward, and he looked around frantically for an escape a second before Jason picked Bulbasaur up and spun him around. Gina burst out laughing and Charmander watched the whole display as if offended by the emotional outburst.

"Hell! Freakin! _Yes!_" Jason shouted, and Gina applauded him while still laughing. Then she looked down at Charmander's priceless expression of disgust. "What? You want a hug too?" Gina teased, and Charmander spat a little flame out at her sneaker and glared as if to say _I'd like to see you try!_

* * *

_Author's Note: Shout out to Adrian Agrippa, a reader who gave me one of my most extensive and thoughtful reviews. I added a little reference to him in this chapter since I adjusted a few things regarding Fire-starters after reading his feedback.  
_


	6. Pewter's Gym Leader :Gina:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 6: Pewter's Gym Leader

(Gina Ikeda)

It was amazing how much of a difference a traveling partner made. Gina had been ready to take a wrong turn down an overgrown path when Jason pulled her back and kicked the moss off of a sign leading to the correct one. Gina was shocked; if she'd been alone she'd have wandered around in the forest lost for days.

Meanwhile, she and Jason were positively showered with wild Pokémon. Kakuna fell from the trees, Caterpie scurried underfoot, Pidgey swooped down in a mad frenzy. Bulbasaur and Charmander begrudgingly fought through the fray, probably only out of necessity. Gina nabbed herself a particularly vicious level five Pidgey, and Jason proceeded to holler in delight again as he caught a Caterpie. Gina decided she might never get used to his outbursts, but hadn't been able to stop from joining in. Jason's euphoria was contagious.

"Nice job, dude," she said, clapping him on the back. "You probably scared away all the other ones now."

Jason merely winked and said, "You know you're just jealous!"

Gina had been keeping Charmander in its Pokéball so he wouldn't run off without her, but they discovered that fewer wilds attacked when Charmander and Bulbasaur were out. Jason and she had never endured the surprising chill of night that followed the deceptively hot days of summer, and had been immensely put off by how frigid camping became after sunset. Charmander lit them a fire reluctantly, and they'd managed to catch some sleep before starting off again earlier than either of them was used to.

It was around noon the following day when the duo reached Pewter City, and Gina could scarcely remember being so happy to see a place in her life. Pewter was charming in a sophisticated way. Many of the buildings were made of stone instead of wood, a clever little tribute to the town's theme. Gina began wondering if all towns and cities did this. If that were the case she shuddered to think what Fuchsia City looked like.

She and Jason made a beeline to the Pokémon Center, which sported the exact same type of Chansey-adorned keychain. She muttered to Jason that it was clearly a conspiracy, and they spent a few moments discussing what this strange, devious symbolism could mean over drinks.

After they dropped off their Pokémon it was time to explore the city. Pewter was larger than Viridian, which made Pallet seem even more dwarfed. Convenience stores, tourist traps and aggressive cart vendors grabbed their attention with ease. Jason made jokes about the people they passed, imitating two chattering girls in extraordinarily short shorts, which caused Gina to snort painfully to stifle her laughter. That, of course, had set Jason off, and for the rest of the day every time Gina laughed he would snort beside her. Gina's face was sore from smiling. She had to wonder why it was okay when Jason made fun of her, since Amaris had only managed to provoke great disdain. She supposed it was the way Jason did it, with ease and no malice.

When they approached an imposing museum they pooled their money for tickets and strolled in the blessed air-conditioned halls.

"Check out the size of this thing," Jason said, gawking at a Pokémon fossil beneath a glass case. It must have stretched at least forty feet from snout to tail. "It's freakin' huge! 'Aerodactyl,'" he read off of the plaque. "Prehistoric Pokémon. Believed to have genetic makeup linked to the dinosaurs." He looked up at Gina and broke into a broad grin. "I am so getting me one of these."

Gina stared at him with her mouth slightly open before an incredulous smile came to her face. "Um, Jason," she said, "They're kinda, y'know, extinct."

"So?" he asked, and the sheer honesty of his determination made Gina's own trainer instincts tingle. She was suddenly painstakingly aware of the Gym within walking distance.

"Hey, Jason, I think I'm done looking around in here," she said, fidgeting now. "I wanna challenge the Gym Leader already." At Jason's disbelieving look she clarified. "Meaning I want to keep training my team so they'll be ready sometime this century."

"Yeah, I'm done here too," Jason agreed. The grin fell off his face though as he ticked something off on three fingers. "But wait… you only have Charmander, Pidgey and Nidoran, right?"

Gina shifted a bit. "Yeah."

Jason bit his lip. "Well, I dunno… just, none of those types have an advantage over Rock. And Pidgey'll get severely owned."

She sighed; of course this had been on her mind constantly over the past few days. She plopped down on a chair next to the enormous fossil. "Well, you're right. I wonder if making them super buff will even make a difference. What do you think I should do?"

"Well," Jason said, "you could always walk around the forest and catch a Bug-type and train it up. Or you could train Charmander like crazy… maybe then the type advantage won't matter so much."

"I guess. Yeah, I think I'm going to do that right now," she said, getting up. As she headed down the stairs to the first floor of the museum, Jason called after her.

"Wait, which one? Am I gonna lose you in the forest again?"

"I'm sure Charmander can take 'em, if we train enough!"

* * *

Gina had always known Charmander loved to fight, but now the true nature of his competitive streak was revealed. When she'd mentioned a trainer she wasn't sure she could beat, Charmander's performance upped by quite a few notches. Gone were the few-second's delay between spoken command and action. Gina was ecstatic, and ardently hoped that this turn of events wouldn't revert later.

They trained out in the grassy patches on the outskirts of Pewter all day. Gina felt a pang of remorse for not spending time training Nidoran and Pidgey as well, but knew there would be time for that once the Gym Leader went down. It seemed that her whole life was on hold until after that event took place. _Oh well_, Gina thought as Charmander successfully K.O.'d another wild Pokémon. _Training is my life now._ Charmander winked at her in a very smug way and Gina wondered if he'd just boosted up another level.

By the time Charmander actually slowed down, Gina got the distinct feeling he was actually more than one level stronger. She was content that he could at least spit some flames now, even if he couldn't aim too well. She wasn't sure if she was ready to beat the Leader right then and there, but she did feel like trying, and soon.

At the very least she wanted to go ogle the Gym.

* * *

The Pewter Gym really was the highlight of the city. Gina had to wonder why it was tucked away toward the back, not more prominently showcased. Enormous granite slabs, roughly hewn together, formed the walls of the massive building. It was made with highly polished, dark, dark silver and shone a little in the sun, but wasn't blinding. It almost seemed like melted graphite. The little plastic box of informational pamphlets stuck near the doors looked comically out of place.

According to her mother there had actually been men and women paid to stand outside the doors of these Gyms back in the day. They were paid to accost passing trainers, rattle off a list of recent wins, and ask if anyone wanted advice on beating the Gym Leader within. Gina couldn't imagine spending all day standing in the sun, trying to scare young trainers or inspire awe in random passerby. This new method was much more agreeable.

Someone passed by and called in a friendly tone, "Hey Initiate! Gonna whoop our Leader?"

Gina felt her face flush and minimized Charmander's ball, hooking it to her belt and attempting to look casual as she responded, "Not quite yet!" She nonchalantly reached over and took a pamphlet from the clear plastic box and flicked the glossy sheet open to begin studying the pictures. The first image was of a man, his wife and their toddler, a black-and-white photo that must have been taken over ten years back. Color printing was not something often used until the last decade. Gina didn't think the man in the photo looked like Brock, and sure enough, it wasn't. He had the same last name though, and Gina soon put two and two together. This must be his son, who had taken over the Gym after Brock retired. A little late, she saw the caption at the bottom of the photo: _Ando and Mariko Harrison and their son._

Most of the pamphlet was entirely uninteresting. There were depressing statistics of the Gym's Pokémon within a chart that allowed Gina insight to how the Gyms were run. Apparently, these days you were required to give the level of the strongest Pokémon you planned to use against the Leader, and they would choose their own Pokémon accordingly so as not to completely kill yours in battle. Gina felt a small surge of disapproval at the idea of someone "going easy on her," but quickly changed her mind when she imagined dragging Charmander's corpse back to the Center in pieces after it had been body-slammed by a level 100 Onix.

A small biography of Brock in the lower left corner caught Gina's attention next. Here was a photo of him in his youth, in an even more awful, grainy black-and-white. He was a tall, broad-shouldered young man with spiky brown hair. His eyes, nearly shut in a warm smile, peered out from a tan face framed by a strong chin and ears that stuck out a bit awkwardly, like he was having a hard time growing into them. Gina was shocked at how young Brock looked, and quickly glanced to the photo's caption. Sure enough, this was taken just about fifty years ago. Heck, even the leaflet's copyright showed that it, too, was dreadfully out of date; it had been printed nearly fourteen years ago. Frowning, she looked back at the picture of the smiling young man and half-heartedly scanned the paragraph about his life.

Apparently Brock had grown up the eldest of many siblings, taking care of them for a daunting number of years before his previously MIA father returned and Brock had been allowed to travel Kanto at his leisure. He'd always been a Rock-type trainer, it said, although Gina could hardly muster up surprise at this. All the Gym Leaders she'd ever heard of seemed to have known precisely what they wanted to train from the moment of birth. Gina envied their unquestioned drive.

Gina folded the pamphlet up, about to return it to the box, but decided against it and folded it smaller to pocket it. Maybe if she helped to deplete these outdated things the company that manufactured them would be forced to make new ones.

Gina let her eyes travel to the right and read the big double-doors. There was a plaque that read "PEWTER CITY POKEMON GYM" with "LEADER: BROCK" underneath. Gina was momentarily confused, but chalked it up to a display of respect similar to Professor Drake retaining the Oak Research Center's original name. It was amusing that Brock was so famous he didn't need his last name displayed. As her eyes strayed lower, though, she caught sight of a large, temporary-looking sign that had been plastered up crooked:

_Gym temporarily run by Jerry Armstrong, first apprentice of Mr. Harrison._

"What?" Gina mused to herself, frowning very hard at the flimsy wood sign. Why wasn't Brock's son Ando leading the Gym? Was he off somewhere on business? On second inspection, the sign looked extremely decrepit and old, as if it had originally been temporary but had weathered through a number of years untouched. Gina frowned even more.

A Pewter City native seemed to see her confusion and paused. "Anything wrong?"

Gina had only been half-aware of another person's presence and hadn't expected to be addressed. "Well… if it's not too much trouble, I was wondering, is Mr. Harrison off on business?"

The friendly resident stopped and turned to face Gina in full, a frown on her face. "You don't know? God, you're the fourth youngster who's been hanging around here today asking where Ando's run off to."

Gina blinked, slightly abashed by her apparent ignorance. There was an awkward pause for a moment. Finally the woman sighed and said, "Hate to be the first to inform you, but Mr. and Mrs. Harrison died almost twelve years ago."

Gina felt her mouth dropping open even as her mind whirled into overdrive. "Wh-what? What happened to them?" She did some quick math in her head and swore they couldn't have been much older than her own mom.

The woman shrugged, somber. "No one's really quite sure. They were helping on a big excavation at the Rock Tunnel, and there was a cave-in. I guess people assume it was that accident, though I suppose they could have become ill. It took a while for news to get back to Pewter, and not too many details were shared—respect to the family, and all."

Gina felt an involuntary chill, but before she could try to extract herself from this situation, another thought jumped into her head and was out of her mouth before she could stop it. "What about their kid?" she asked, remembering the small face on the pamphlet.

"He and his little sister are both fine and well. I believe they're out on their Pokémon journeys at the moment."

"Oh," Gina said. She felt weirdly hot and cold at the same time. "That's good. Well, I'll…"

"Yes, bye," the woman said, offering her a kind smile as the two awkwardly parted ways.

* * *

Gina tried to force her brain onto different topics as she walked. It wasn't like she didn't understand that people died young sometimes, but it was a harsh drop back to reality at the first Gym stop on her journey.

Gina saw surprisingly few groups of people traveling together on her way back to the Center. She'd somehow had the impression that trainer groups were a frequent occurrence, but now she wasn't so sure. She wondered if Jason and she would part ways soon, and secretly hoped they wouldn't just yet. She rather liked traveling with someone else and wasn't sure why the thought hadn't occurred to her before.

_Well, duh,_ she thought, rolling her eyes. As if there was anyone to travel with back in Pallet. Finn and the others were nice enough, but they'd always just been acquaintances. Hell, Amaris was the only person her age she spoke to on a regular basis back then. She took a moment to let that depressing realization sink in; he had made up virtually her entire social life. She could just see it now: "Hey, Amaris, wanna go on a Pokémon journey with me? Hyuk hyuk!" She'd get denied so fast her head would spin, and after it was done she'd have to get it checked for asking in the first place.

Thinking of Amaris worked its magic on her, and Gina was eager to head back to the grassy thickets around Pewter as soon as possible. The disturbing conversation outside the Gym seemed farther away. She wondered vaguely if she could bottle the intense ambition Amaris caused in her. She'd market it and make millions: "Eau de Jerk-wad."

Halfway back to the Center she ran into Jason again. It looked like he'd been training, too… and from the looks of it, he'd decided to take a chance with Razor Leaf. Hundreds of tiny paper cut-sized marks peppered his arms and face, and Gina winced in sympathy. "Bulbasaur… has a ways to go?"

"I wish not to speak of it," he said darkly.

* * *

Some time later the two of them were sitting at the long bar of the Finer Diner, doing a bad job placing their orders. The man running the counter was very patient with them, but Gina still felt guilty that he'd had to ask them if they were ready over four times.

Gina was just finishing up the recap of her day, sipping cocoa while Jason expressed a number of emotions; commiseration with her exhaustion, confidence that Charmander was close to a seriously hardcore new technique, and confusion and muted solemnity over the Gym Leader's death.

They were discussing that matter at the moment, which was the main distraction from selecting their food. Jason was running off on a one-sided tangent, spinning strange ideas and speculations accompanied by more questions than Gina could even make up answers to.

"Wow. Couldn't've been old age, think it really was that accident? I hear that Gym Leaders get into a lot of bad situations. Dangerous stuff. I respect Gym Leaders a ton, doing what they do even though they know they're always at risk. Some aren't right in the head though. I heard Koga was sort of a whack-job. Not that I know that personally, what with him being like 90 now, if he's still alive. I wonder why the Harrisons' deaths didn't make the news? I mean, I'm sure it was in the news but if it was in our lifetime you'd figure it woulda been all over the media. Hell, you and I both didn't know they were gone till today. Man. It just hit me, Pewter's Gym Leader is gone."

Gina was having a bit of a hard time keeping up with him, but the sugar was helping her brain to follow. She had to agree with a lot of what he was saying; she had no clue why the passing of such an important figure was kept so low-key.

"I wonder what Armstrong is like," she pondered, not sure what else to say.

"Armstrong?" Jason asked. "Oh, is that the temp?"

"Not so 'temp,' I guess," Gina said, and it came out a bit darker than she intended.

"Say there, son," the man at the counter said, frowning at Jason's Dex. He had taken it to punch in his credit code for their cocoa and was now peering alternately at the device and up at Jason. "Do you have a brother or something?"

The effect this simple question had on Jason was astounding. He put his mug on the table a little too fast and hot chocolate sloshed over one of his hands. He didn't appear to notice. "Why do you ask?" His blue eyes were hard and intense, as if the answer to his query could very well change the fate of the planet.

"Ahh, no reason… just, there was another blond kid, maybe four'r so years older, name was Daniel Fremont, I think, and…?"

The man at the counter didn't bother finishing his sentence, since Jason was on his feet at "Fremont" and pushing through the doors into the three o'clock heat in another second. Gina simply stared after him, baffled, then exchanged a bewildered look with the man.

"What was all that there about?" he asked.

"Heck if I know."


	7. Tunnel Vision :Orion:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 7: Tunnel Vision

(Orion Fremont)

The door to the Pewter City Pokémon Center pushed open with a cheery jingle from its silver bell, and in rushed a burst of hot air followed by a miserably overheated boy. He was drenched in sweat and feeling utterly disgusting from the tips of his messy blond hair down to the marshy dampness in his brown boots.

Orion shook his head, letting the cool air caress him from all angles. His shoes really were in awful shape, and he kicked them against the door frame and stomped on the welcome mat until he was satisfied.

The woman at the front desk appeared to be struggling in vain to organize her mess. Keys, call tabs for healed Pokémon, receipts and signed forms littered the surface of her desk, and Orion paused a few feet away, not wanting to intrude. After a second or two the flustered woman looked up.

"Oh! My goodness, how long have you been standing there?"

Orion opened his mouth to reply, but she had sized him up at once and was now digging around for a key.

"You're new, I haven't seen you around. I'd remember you, all tall and good-looking," she said, fussing around behind the counter and pulling out a key with a Chansey on it. Orion felt his face flush uncomfortably at the flattery, and she smiled at him in a motherly way. "You have a Dex?"

"'Fraid not," he said. "I'll have to just fill out the forms."

She sighed and blew some hair out of her face. "Oh darn. I was hoping you'd have a Dex. Not your fault, not your fault." She looked at the deplorable mess and drummed her fingers on the counter. Orion waited patiently until she said, "I know, how about I just have you run along to your room, and you can fill out the paperwork later. All I need is your name and some form of I.D. for now." She poised over the keyboard, ready to type.

"Daniel Fremont," Orion said. "F-R-E-M-O-N-T."

He got the familiar pause, the double-take. "Fremont?" the receptionist asked, looking impressed. "Well, are you related to...? Well, you know. ... I'm so sorry, you must get that all the time!" she said, chastising herself.

Orion shook his head and lifted his hands. "Not a problem, it's no trouble. I'm Nathan Fremont's nephew through marriage... no blood ties, no glory. I don't really get to see my uncle." He smiled a wan smile and she nodded, pretending to still be impressed. He could tell her interest had faded. "Which room am I in?" he asked, eager to change the subject.

"Room 29, dearie," she said, finally handing him his key. "Enjoy your stay, and I'll just buzz you up when I finally have this situation dealt with." She motioned to her desk and made a face.

"No rush, ma'am," Orion said. "Thanks very much."

Once in his room, Orion sighed, slipped out of his pack and laid it down beside the bed. Then he sank to the floor and leaned back against the dresser, simply too tired to move. Ideally he would be taking off his boots, climbing into bed and passing out, but his body refused to let him get even that far.

He took this moment of immobility to look around his room. There was one bed, one dresser, and a door that lead to what he assumed was a shared bathroom. He wondered vaguely how that worked... he didn't really like the idea of his neighbor barging in on him mid-shower. The walls and furniture were a shade of light gray, neutral and unassuming, and there were no pictures up and no carpet or throw rugs. Orion decided he liked it at once.

There were a number of reasons he had chosen to come to Pewter. One was its relative anonymity as far as cities went. Pallet and Viridian were a little too small and intimate; Saffron, Fuchsia and Celadon were too sprawling, large and bustling. Lavender was a strange option and Cinnabar was too far away. Cerulean and Pewter had been his remaining choices, and Pewter was one he could reach without cutting through any major cities.

Also, there was the off-chance that Jason was here.

Orion had to admit, there was no reason for him to assume that he would even recognize his brother if he saw him again. They had been kids when they were taken to different parts of Kanto, and their correspondence had slowly tapered off until it stopped completely. Jason and their mother had moved since his most recent letter had been a return to sender. Orion assumed that they were in a different district of Saffron, but who knew? They could be anywhere in the world.

One thing Orion was banking on, though, was Jason's undying love of Pokémon. He had always known that his kid brother would be going on his Master journey at some point, and since he had turned twelve last December, this would be the ideal year to begin. The Expo and Initiative had taken place in Pallet this year, and Orion had been number-crunching possible dates in his head all month. Would Jason spend one day in Viridian City? Two? Three? What about a week? A month? How long would it take him to get through the forest? How long would he stay in Pewter? What had his starter been; would he have a significant advantage over the Pewter Gym? If so, he might already be in Mt. Moon, and Orion would kick himself nonstop for having missed his brother.

As it was, Orion could only hope that his brother was still in the area. Now the hard part would be finding him—subtly.

Orion yanked out his I.D., a decrepit and nasty old thing. The "O" in Orion was virtually all that remained of his first name, and even that was deformed. The "Fremont" had suffered a bit over the years too, but that part was much more legible. His holographic official Vermillion seal was still there, even though the laminated edge of the I.D. was peeling up dangerously.

This piece of plastic was Orion's best friend at the moment, besides the two Pokémon on his home-made trainer belt. It had gotten him through a lot over the years, and it was an unbelievable help now.

Finally Orion was able to pull himself tremulously up from the ground, kick his boots off, and collapse onto the bed. It was too hot in here, but getting back up to flick on the fan was simply not an option. His feet, at least, were reveling in the open air, making him feel momentarily cooler from the contrast. Orion barely had the energy to turn his face away from the pillow to avoid suffocation before he closed his eyes and dropped abruptly into an utterly dreamless sleep.

* * *

Orion filled out the promised paperwork when he woke up a groggy four hours later. The late afternoon sun had lost some of its power, but he had slept in his day clothes in a room with no air flow. He felt pretty damn awful.

First thing was first though. Now that he was officially signed into room 29, he took a few moments to detach the two Pokéballs from his complicated belt. The receptionist watched him with great interest, asking questions about how he'd made this part, or how that bit worked. Orion answered her questions politely and handed his Pokémon over to her. She examined them carefully.

"Smart of you, to label these. You wouldn't believe how many trainers come in here asking if we've seen a misplaced Pokéball… as if they don't know just how many of those go missing a day! Shame…" She slipped the balls into little pockets on what looked like a conveyor belt behind her and fastened each one in snug. Then she pressed an intriguing looking red button the size of a golf ball—something right out of a sci-fi flick, Orion thought—and the Pokéballs zipped off behind a red curtain into the back of the Center. Orion knew they'd be waiting for him in a few hours.

Once outside the Center, Orion thought about how this day would unfold. He wasn't sure where to start looking for Jason, but he surmised that he could rule out the museum, libraries, and any sort of nice restaurant. Still, Pewter was enormous, and there was a chance Jason wasn't even here yet. Asking the albeit very kind receptionist was out of the question. Jason was not yet sixteen, and therefore was completely protected from any inquiries as to his whereabouts. It made Orion's job a little harder, but he was infinitely glad that Jason's identity would be safe for a few more years.

Lost in thought, Orion didn't realize he was blocking the door to the Pokémon Center. He heard a slight cough from behind him and turned around at once, abashed. A girl with very straight black hair was regarding him with muted interest from where she stood about halfway out the door. When Orion took many steps back she emerged completely.

Orion coughed. "Sorry," he said.

The girl shook her head. "It's alright." She moved off around him and headed over to a nearby bench where she unzipped a gray traveling bag. Orion rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a bit more embarrassed than the situation merited.

The girl was wearing some sort of dark green turtleneck, odd for the summer. Orion would have quickly expired wearing something like that. He was about to shuffle away when she removed a Pokéball from a side pocket of her pack.

Out of the blue, he asked, "So, you're a Pokémon trainer?"

At first the girl didn't register that she was being spoken to. When no one else answered him though, she glanced up in his direction, a small confused frown on her face.

"... Yes."

"Ah," Orion said, not expecting so simple a response. Normally even making eye contact with another trainer was enough to send them into a rabid frenzy of battle-lust. Orion cleared his throat. "What's your top?"

This was trainer lingo for her strongest Pokémon, and Orion was relieved that she seemed to recognize this phrase. He had once asked this to a girl who had taken great offense, as she thought Orion had meant her shirt, which of course implied that he had been staring at her chest. The resultant misunderstanding had been one of epic proportions.

"Sixteen," she replied. Then, as if it was a nicety she barely managed to remember, "and yours?"

"Fourteen," he said, wondering already if he could beat her. There was a chance, but if she had some sort of elemental he'd probably lose. Losing was not something that bothered Orion at all, but he did feel a little bad for his team's morale when it happened.

"Care for a quick battle?" he asked, not sure why he was still asking these questions. She seemed busy and uninterested, and he was pretty much just being an annoyance now.

The girl just seemed even more confused, though. She twisted her long hair around her hand and threw it over her shoulder, then said, "Your Pokémon are with the receptionist."

Before thinking, Orion asked, "Oh yeah. Wait, how did you know that?"

There was a little pause, and Orion realized his oversight right as she answered.

"... I was in line behind you when you dropped them off."

He could feel his ears heating up. "Ah. Ah hah. I see. Well, that's a relief. Was worried you might be a stalker, what with the way you keep talking to me." It was a desperate stab at humor, and he was very relieved to see a small, amused smile come to her face.

"Well, I'm rooming here, obviously," the girl said. "So, when you get your team back... we'll take a rain-check until then."

"Yeah, okay," Orion said, feeling a little light-headed from how many idiot vibes he was producing. The girl's smile became slightly more amused, laced with perhaps a tiny bit of friendly pity, and she headed off into Pewter with her gray pack.

"Wow," Orion muttered to himself, hardly able to believe how much of a social leper he was. He felt vaguely sorry that he was roaming around and ruining Daniel Fremont's reputation with his ineptitude.

* * *

Orion had something close to an anxiety attack that evening in front of the Pewter City Gym.

It had all started off rather innocently. He was loitering around the Gym, watching youngsters hover around, only a few brave enough to challenge the Leader within. He inquired after Jason from a few passerby, but no one could help him out when all he had to offer was "He's blond... I think he's still blond."

His plan, admittedly, wasn't wonderful.

Nevertheless, everything had been pretty alright until he overheard a conversation between two young trainers who were eating slices of apple pie on thin paper plates nearby.

"I hear this Gym is cursed. Everyone who runs it seems to die."

"Dude, _everyone _dies eventually."

"No no! I mean like, mysterious deaths. The Leader after Brock died in a really weird accident, or something, no one knows. And then Brock took over again, and..."

The other kid cut him off. "Ando Harrison? Yeah, I heard about that from my mom... but she said he got sick."

"Uh-uh," the conspiracy-theorist continued. "But your mom didn't tell you about how weird everything was here before Ando died. Things were all suspicious and stuff, for a long time." Orion had to cover a snort at that less-than-descriptive explanation. "I think it wasn't an accident."

"No shit, it was an _illness. _That's what I just _said._"

The anxiety attack didn't really feel like an anxiety attack at first. Orion just thought he was feeling a little chill from the encroaching evening, accompanied by a slight wave of heat from his own lingering exhaustion. When cold sweat broke out across his brow he worried for a second that he was coming down with a cold.

"I dunno, it's just weird that a Gym Leader starts acting all strange and then a few months later he's dead, and his wife too. It's like they knew or something."

"Yeah well, maybe they were psychic and they could tell they were gonna get sick."

"Idiot, psychics aren't real!"

Orion smiled again. Clearly, detailed conspiracy theories were given fact, but talk of psychic powers was just plain loony.

"Whatever, can we not talk about dead Gym Leaders anymore?"

It was a cute enough conversation, which made Orion wonder why he suddenly had tunnel vision and a buzzing in his ears. Unbidden, the image of his father's face rose in his mind.

Nathan Fremont was a man who always looked slightly edgy. It was subtle some days, when you could only tell from the intensity in his eyes and his set jaw. He clenched and unclenched his fists a lot and spoke in short, quick barks. He wasn't a pleasant guy on those days, but he could be dealt with.

Other days it was another story. Fremont had a very active nerve above his left eyebrow that ran down to the side of his nose, and it twitched in silent fury whenever his eldest son displayed that he was a _goddamn_ _pansy, can't believe you actually think you'll be a trainer, what the hell is wrong with you?_

Orion was pretty good at zenning the insults and criticism in one ear and out the other. What he had not been able to ignore were the long business trips and even odder behavior that accompanied them.

At first it had been great. His dad would head off to Fuchsia or Lavender with only a "Don't mess up the house and don't let anyone in the Gym," which Orion could gladly obey. He'd have the house to himself and could cook something other than steak and potatoes, watch whatever he wanted on TV, and even try to figure out his dad's internet pass code, which of course he could never crack. Life was good while his dad was away on business.

Orion sat down and leaned against the slabs of granite behind him, which felt shockingly chilled on his feverish skin. He was made up of layers of hot and cold. Air still rushed into his lungs, but it felt like it wasn't doing anything for him.

By now he realized what was happening to him, and felt a flush of heat travel up his face and across his scalp. It was humiliating—even though he knew no one was watching, it felt like he was utterly exposed and obvious. Orion had had these panic attacks before, and it was a sad irony that they tended to pop up when he was alone in the house for too long. He didn't like his father's company, but it seemed he didn't deal well with solitude, either. The attacks seemed to be triggered whenever he tried—and failed—to find his mother's new address online at the Vermillion Pokémon Center, or tucked away in his father's files. He had the niggling suspicion that his father had started intercepting Orion's letters from them, and knew their location but was keeping it to himself. Then again, it was possible they had cut ties with Nathan Fremont as a safety precaution—the possibilities were endless, and chasing them around and around in his head just reminded him of how trapped he was—and voila, there was the recipe for one sweaty-palmed, dizzying panic attack.

It didn't help that his father's behavior had become progressively stranger. He was Vermillion's substitute Gym Leader, after all, a position that was temporary for now but could very well become permanent if Vincent Warren kept being such an absolute flake. It was no secret that Orion's father resented Warren immensely for being such a slacker, and during the nights when he was more fired up than usual Orion was privy to his father's tirades. Nathan Fremont slammed doors and threw kitchen appliances and went on and on about what a moron the current leader was. _Sorry excuse for a man. Why Surge left him in charge I'll never know, shit, idiots, both of them, what are you looking at? _It was difficult to get his dad's mind off of his less-than-satisfactory position as temp Gym Leader whenever Warren couldn't be bothered to show up to work. The little red alarm bells had started going off in Orion's head when his father began to neglect the very job he had always craved with every fiber of his being.

Orion stopped his train of thought with great, great difficulty, not wanting to relive any of the past month. He took a deep breath and let it out. He focused his gaze on a tree in the distance, concentrating on how still and unmoving it was. It helped whenever his nerves got the better of him, which was more often these days. Sometime during his deep-breathing session the kids had moved off. It was getting dark and Jason had not come to the Pewter Gym today.

Pulling himself to his feet, Orion glanced over at the doors of the Gym. On impulse, he placed his hand gently against the building and spent a moment in silence to honor Ando Harrison and his wife. Whatever had happened, he could commiserate with the complicated life of a Gym Leader. It seemed that no matter who you were, if you were associated with these places, nothing was ever easy.

* * *

Orion slept fitfully that night and was exhausted when he woke up surprisingly late the next day. He was normally a morning person, but something seemed to have drained him of his energy.

He spent the day inquiring after Jason here and there, but his heart wasn't quite in it. He wanted to find his brother, for sure, but he couldn't help being reminded of their difficult family situation. It had been thrown into sharp relief by the conversation he had overheard outside Pewter Gym. No one could say that Orion's life was simple, or even safe anymore. If Jason had a simple, safe life, Orion was seriously starting to wonder if he should just leave him to it.

Orion turned to ask someone passing behind him about Jason, just out of habit, but stopped mid-sentence when he realized who it was.

"Oh, hey."

The black-haired girl seemed shocked to see him again, and glanced around her as if dispelling the lingering doubt that he was speaking to someone else. "... Hi," she said at last, not unpleasantly, but with perhaps a little reservation. Orion saw that her boots were caked with mud, and he wondered if she had been out training on Route 3, the path to Mt. Moon.

"Been training?"

"Yeah." There was an awkward pause and Orion was ready to walk away. The girl shifted a little though, and gave him a bit more to work with. "Were you?"

"Naw," he said, not sure if this was a good sign or just lengthening an already dead conversation. "Just milling around town."

"Did you get your team back?"

Orion was pleasantly surprised that she had remembered. "Yep, they're all good again. Still up for that battle?"

"Yeah, sure," she said, reaching for the Pokéball in her bag. She had an inscrutable look on her face.

Moments later they were across from each other behind the Center. Orion had been ready to let her go first, but she frowned at him in confusion until he remembered that challengers generally had the first move. He was back to awkward grins as he sent out Meowth.

The girl seemed a little troubled by this choice, and a second later Orion knew why. From her Pokéball materialized a misty, dark shape, and his eyes contracted and dilated as if in sudden shadow. Orion raised his eyebrows and he and the girl met each other's eyes.

"Guess I should have asked," she said. "Do you have any elementals?"

"Um... nope, just Normals," Orion responded, fascinated by the Gastly and the way it seemed to fade in and out of his vision.

"... All of them are Normal types?"

"Yup. Well, 'all' two of them."

"... Ah," she said, and recalled her Gastly. Orion frowned and put his hands up.

"No, it's okay, really. I challenged you, you don't have to stop."

She smiled at him, amused yet again, and said, "I doubt this match would be much fun for either of us."

Now it was Orion's turn to ask questions. "So, you have all Ghosts?"

"Only Ghosts," she affirmed. "'All' one of them."

"That's pretty cool," Orion said. "Are you from the Lavender area?"

"No," she responded with blunt finality, and Orion made an immediate mental note to stop asking questions.

Two seconds later he asked, "What's your name?" He mentally smacked himself. "I mean, you don't have to, uh, tell me. I know it's not smart to give out your name to just, any random guy." Heck, he was going under the name Daniel right now, after all.

She regarded him for a little while more, sizing him up. Orion noticed that she had very, very dark eyes, almost black, if that was possible. Finally she smiled slightly and shook her head. "No, it's not a big deal. I'm Zahlia."

"Daniel," he said, extending his hand to shake on impulse. She took it and shook it with a surprisingly firm grip. "Well, thanks for the almost-battle. I'm sure Meowth enjoyed coming out for a while."

Zahlia nodded. "Not often you come across a Normal-type trainer." She paused for a moment, then added, "Unless you're not?"

Orion shook his head. "No, I am. Or, I think I'll stick with them, anyway."

"Unique," Zahlia said, as they headed into the Center, gravitating towards the cafe.

"Not really," Orion insisted, shrugging. "Now, Gastlies, _those_ are cool."

They grabbed cups of coffee and sat together for a short while, discussing their various training experiences. Orion had to feel somewhat encouraged in spite of the failed battle. It helped that he was very interested in the care of all types of Pokémon, a trait his father had always found shameful. Zahlia certainly knew her stuff. To her credit she was either genuinely interested in Meowth and Rattata, or did a very good job pretending.

A short while later Orion led Zahila back to her room (a gesture that seemed to confuse her) and they stood awkwardly outside her door for a few moments. Finally, Orion unstuck his throat, and, curling his fingers into his pale blonde hair, asked, "So… you're going to Mt. Moon after this?"

Zahlia, for some unknown reason, was staring at her closed door as if somehow worried by it. "I… yeah, yes, I am. I was thinking of leaving as soon as tomorrow evening."

Orion winced. The unspoken message was clear: _I am out of here; don't try to make friends_. Apparently blocking a doorway and an almost-battle-turned-coffee talk did not a friendship make. "Okay," he said, hitching a smile onto his face and taking a step back. "Nice to've met you, Zahlia."

Orion was going to write this off as a failure and head to his own room when she suddenly asked, "Do you want to grab lunch tomorrow before I go, or something?"

"Sure!" Orion said, almost before she was done speaking. _Fear me_, he thought,_ for I am clearly starved for company. _"I'm, not busy or anything," he tacked on, trying to make himself look less like a loser. She had that amused smile again though, which he figured was not a bad thing. "I'll uh, see you then."

"Yeah," Zahlia said, retreating into her room. "See you then."

* * *

Orion was awake the next morning by seven a.m. This was more like it, and he was glad he was getting his normal sleep pattern back. He let out Rattata and Meowth to roam about and ignore one another in his room and left to get them some PokéChow. On impulse he bought extra for Zahlia's Pokémon, too.

Orion passed the time writing down lazy little poems in a beaten up notebook, then doodled a comic recounting the way Meowth had recently charged down its own reflection in a mirror. Meowth was quite proud and liked to think she was elegant, so whenever Orion caught her doing something clumsy like this she refused to look at him for a while. Though he was sure Meowth couldn't read human language, he couldn't shake the feeling that his Pokémon did know that she was featured in the notebook sometimes. She showed her disapproval by gnawing on his sketches, which contributed to their dilapidated state.

Closer to lunch, Orion headed down to Zahlia's door, but found he did not have to knock. It opened almost in his face, and he took a few stumbling steps back to avoid it. Zahlia looked almost frightened for a split second, but her expression soon morphed into simple shock. The two of them shared an almost comical moment of silence.

"Oh," Zahlia said. "Oh. Hi. Sorry." After a moment's consideration, she added, "Did you just wake up?"

Orion recovered and grinned. "Naw, I've been up since seven. Oh, has your Pokémon eaten yet? I've got extra PokéChow and..." At the renewed look of amusement on Zahlia's face, Orion trailed off. "... Aaand your Pokémon is Ghost-type. Wow... should have picked up on that."

Zahlia was actually smiling, and looked like she was struggling not to laugh. "I appreciate the gesture. Well... my team doesn't need to eat, but I do."

* * *

The morning wasn't exactly going well.

So far, Orion had spilled coffee all over himself, tripped Zahlia twice, and completely botched up four different questions or comments, warping even the most innocent sentence into something that sounded terribly offensive. Orion would never understand the notorious bad luck he had when interacting with girls.

Miraculously, Zahlia hadn't slapped him yet. She'd looked witheringly away from the table in something akin to embarrassment a few times when he stumbled over his sentences to the waiter (who had given Zahlia a look that said _does your friend have special needs?_) but other than that she just seemed alternately amused and distracted.

Orion didn't really think it was his place to ask, but he'd never been good about knowing his place, so he blundered on. "Is something bothering you? You haven't eaten much."

Zahlia smiled the small, half-hearted smile that was rapidly becoming familiar to him. "No, I'm okay. I just found something unwelcome in my room this morning."

The second it was out of her mouth Zahlia looked like she wanted nothing more than to take it back. Her jaw tightened and her narrow eyes widened slightly—only a hair's width, barely noticeable. She immediately set herself upon her food, and Orion contemplated whether he should ask or let it drop. The decision was taken out of his hands when the waiter returned with the check.

Half an hour later they headed back to the Pokémon Center, Orion feeling pleasantly full on tomato bisque and pastrami on rye, and Zahlia looking strange and preoccupied again. Orion couldn't quite place it; he felt like he knew this girl, like they'd met somewhere before, as much of a cliché as it was.

"So, ah," Orion began, definitely noticing the way Zahlia flinched slightly. He paused for a moment, a little worried, before cautiously continuing. "You're going out to Mt. Moon soon?"

"Well," Zahlia said, and he might have been imagining it, but she sounded a little relieved. "I might actually wait a bit longer."

"Oh!" Orion said, smiling. "Well, that's cool. I mean, Mt. Moon's not going anywhere."

Zahlia offered him another slight smile and said, "Suppose not, hmm?"

There was a companionable little pause, and Orion felt pretty confident that they were at least on the path to some kind of friendly acquaintanceship.

"Don't suppose I can coerce you into doing something again with me sometime?"

Zahlia was doing something very odd to her door while he said this, and Orion's smile downshifted. She didn't seem to have heard him; she was too busy turning the knob of her door and very, very slowly easing it open.

"Is... something wrong?"

"What?" Zahlia asked, turning toward him. "No, nothing's wrong. Sorry, if I'm acting weird," she added, shaking her head and focusing harder on social interaction. "What did you say?"

"Just... wondering if you wanted to hang out again sometime."

"Ah," she said, turning back to her door and pushing it open with more force, as if to prove that she could. She glanced into her room, then turned back to him while stepping backwards into it. "Sure. I'd like that."

Orion was so completely confused. He actually couldn't remember the last time he had been this confused. Her words said one thing but her actions screamed something entirely different. He wondered if this was why he had so much trouble with girls. "Alright," he said, and offered as one last extension of help, "If anything's, well, bugging you, and I can help—"

Zahlia looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. "Wow," she said, and Orion instantly felt incredibly awkward. "Thanks, but... I'm good. Really. You're very nice for someone I just met."

"Yeah, well," he said, digging his fingers into a tense spot in his shoulder just to have something to do. This was usually how he scared away new friends. He sort of did give off the "helpful to the point of creepy" vibe at times, though in this case he was starting to get legitimately concerned for this strange girl and her even stranger behavior. "Y'know," he finished lamely.

"See you later, Daniel." He must have had a blank look on his face for a second or two, because he didn't immediately register that as his current alias. Then recognition came to his face and he nodded.

"Yeah, you too."

Zahlia regarded him for a moment with something like friendly interest. A second later she slid into her room and closed the door in his face.

Still, he would look at this as progress.


	8. Two Part Relief :Jason:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 8: Two-Part Relief

(Jason Fremont)

Jason couldn't remember the last time he ran as quickly as he did just then. Jason had loved running back in Saffron, and had done laps around the Gym or even the Silph Co. building. Now, however, was different. Jason was running as if hell was hot on his heels.

Daniel Fremont was Jason's cousin through marriage on his mom's side. He was on his trainer journey right now, last Jason had heard. He had picked a Squirtle and was terrible at writing home to his family (according to the letters Jason's mom read to him, anyway.) To be honest Jason could care less about Daniel. He'd been a bit of a jerk, always shoving their little cousins around and dominating the best games at family reunions.

Daniel Fremont was also a flaming redhead covered in freckles and was incredibly short for a sixteen-year-old. The tall blond guy the man at the diner had described was either, indeed, Daniel Fremont with platform shoes and a horrible dye job, or...

Jason rounded a corner and almost took out an old woman. Shouting "sorry!" over his shoulder, he pushed on. How long had it been since they'd seen one another? Seven years? Eight?

It had to be him; there was no doubt in Jason's mind. It had to be Orion.

Unlike most young brothers, Jason and Orion had gotten along fine. They had been the other's sole playmate, as both parents kept them cooped up indoors for the most part. Nathan Fremont hadn't liked his sons to piddle around with other kids when they should be studying up on Electric Pokémon, and his mom hadn't wanted them to stray too far for fear of abductions. That was his mother, though; she always looked at everything with a depressingly accurate amount of cynicism and distrust. She knew that the sons of a potential Gym Leader could be ransomed for money or badges at the blink of an eye. No matter how much the brothers tried to convince her that their father was not yet a Leader and therefore not very likely to be targeted, it was no use. Jason and Orion could scarcely breathe without their mother standing over them the whole time.

After the very ugly divorce his mother had left Vermillion with Jason in tow, and he hadn't seen hide nor hair of his older brother. They'd kept in touch for a few years, but when Jason and his mother had moved out of their old district the letters from Orion stopped. His mother tried not to show how that worried her and Jason learned early on not to bring his older brother up too often. When he'd asked her when they'd see him again all she could say was she didn't know. Then she'd hole herself up in her room for a few hours and Jason would be left to his own devices, regretting ever breaching the subject.

They had both hoped that when Orion turned sixteen he would be able to leave Vermillion and find them, but they were not optimistic. Nathan Fremont ruled his home with an iron fist and it would be very out-of-character for him to fund his son's journey, or even allow him to visit them if Orion himself could save up the funds. It always disturbed Jason; his strong and at times terrifying mother who could bend the will of any attorney and crush her opponents into submission was powerless to gain legal custody over her oldest son.

The Pokémon Center came into view and Jason's heart leaped painfully into his throat. He was inside in a second and many people looked up at his sudden, loud entrance. His fevered gaze tore over each face in the lobby in under three seconds; no one here was blond. Turning a 180 and tearing out through the door as the receptionist shouted something after him, Jason ran until he reached a convergence of pathways about half a block away. He froze, head whipping in random directions while he struggled against the urgent need to be moving. He didn't know where he was going and running for the sake of running would do little good. Jason wasn't even sure how much time had passed since the diner man had dropped the bomb on him, but he knew that if he didn't catch Orion before his brother left for Mt. Moon or the Viridian Forest, it might take him days, or even weeks to make contact. Weeks were things Jason wouldn't stand for and could not afford. He refused to let his brother slip past. Each blistering second was widening the gap between him and Orion—a gap that had never been so small as it was today.

_Where is he?_ Jason thought to himself desperately, straining his fevered mind for an idea. _Okay… okay. Just because he wasn't in the lobby doesn't mean he's not at the Center. If he's there, the lady will know—_he cut off his train of thought as he made up his mind to dart back into the Center.

The woman at the front desk looked utterly alarmed when he dashed up to her, and she was on her feet in a second, reaching back to hit the red button behind her. Jason realized she thought it was a Pokémon-type emergency, and he shook his head, putting his hands out in front of him. "No no," he said, completely out of breath. "Not like that. Need... to know if someone, Daniel Fremont, is here?" He was struggling to get the words out around a sharp pain in his side from the insane run on undigested food.

"Oh, Fremont? I should have known. He looks like you, you must be related." Jason was about ready to explode and had to fight very, very hard not to yell 'just tell me already!' at the woman as she smiled at him. "He is indeed checked in here."

"Could you tell me, do you remember if he, where he is?" Jason spat out. This was completely frustrating. What if there was a family emergency Jason needed to tell "Daniel" about? She didn't know that. Why was this woman so calm?

She seemed a little confused by his three sentences mashed into one, but picked up on it. "Actually I think you're in luck. I think he and his friend are out back right—"

Jason was gone before she could finish her sentence. The Center was big and sprawling, like all Centers, and Jason could feel his side protesting angrily. He hoped he wouldn't have a heat stroke or something. If he had a heat stroke he might be delayed in finding Orion.

He knew he was close before he saw him. The roaring of apprehension and excitement in his chest escalated to a cacophony of triumph even before Jason rounded the corner and caught sight of him.

The boy was standing at the back of the Center, sipping a carryout drink and staring down at a sheaf of paper. He had pale blond hair that was swept away from his face, like a hand had just been pulled through it a few times. It stuck out at the same weird angles Jason remembered so vividly from his childhood.

Tiredness was forgotten.

"_Orion, hey!_"

Jason threw himself at the boy's back in an awkward half-back-thump-half-hug, which caused the other to jump terribly and spill nearly his entire drink on the ground. He felt more than saw Orion's head whip around to try to get a look at his attacker, and laughed as his Orion got a face full of Jason's hair instead.

"J-_Jason?_" he exclaimed, stumbling to the side, still off balance from the collision. He dropped his drink at once and put his hands on Jason's shoulders. Relief coursed through him—there had still been the off-chance that this was just a creepy Orion doppelganger, but with that one strangled, stunned word, his own name in question-form, everything fell into place.

"I can't believe it," Jason shouted, pulling back and examining his captive. His grin was so wide it hurt his face. "Well, no, I can believe it. You still have the same fruity hair!"

Orion looked too surprised to say anything for a second, just staring at him like he was pretty sure he wasn't real. There was a stifling, halting moment of awkwardness, and Jason's grin flickered just a little. Then Orion's face broke into a huge smile, the corners of his blue eyes crinkling and a hand reaching up to gently tug on one of Jason's half-ruined spikes. "And what the heck did you do to yours?" he asked.

Jason wondered if someone's face could break permanently from smiling too much. "Look at you. I can't believe it's you. You're really here! I'd hoped you were here, when the guy said Daniel was here, but I was worried you'd be in Cerulean by now! I didn't ask the guy where you went. I should have done that before I ran out. I knew you weren't Daniel! It didn't sound like Daniel, the description he gave me."

Orion shook his head, bewildered, and laughed. "I don't understand a thing you're saying, but it doesn't matter. You were looking for me?" he asked, taking a step back so he could look at Jason better. "I was looking for you! It was so lame, I was just asking random people if they'd seen you, and that I was pretty sure you were blonde but who knew now?"

"Yeah, Matt's hair turned brown when he got older," Jason agreed, referencing a distant cousin. "Legit concern." Somewhere in this he realized how utterly, completely bizarre it was that they were standing here after years of no contact, talking about cousins and changing hair colors. His head reeled from information overload, finally, now that his first desperate mission of _find Orion now_ was complete.

Jason finally noticed the girl peering warily at the two of them. She looked to be about Orion's age. Her dark eyes took in all of his features in one sweeping assessment, and she seemed to reach the obvious conclusion: "You're Daniel's long-lost brother, then?" she gave Orion a raised eyebrow and added, "Or is it really 'Daniel?'" Orion looked a little sheepish.

"Uh, yeah, guess so," Jason said, grinning and feeling his face heat up from some mix of exertion and slight embarrassment. He felt strangely exposed now.

"Oh, jeez, sorry," Orion said, clearing his throat. "Jason, this is my friend, Zahlia." He turned and presented Jason in the same manner. "And Zahlia, this is my kid brother, Jason."

"I'm not a 'kid' brother!" Jason protested, but dove into the next subject before he could chicken out. "Dude, what's been going on with you in the past... I dunno, _forever?_ We didn't know… I mean, we haven't heard…" He glanced at Zahlia, the triumphant hype starting to morph into nervous jitters.

"I—same thing, same place, I mean. I never—" Orion too seemed painfully aware of their onlooker, but Zahlia was packing up her bag.

"You two catch up," she said, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "I'll catch you later, Orion. Jason, nice meeting you." She smiled at him and Jason felt a wave of gratitude and relief that she was leaving, nice as she seemed.

"Thank you," Orion said, his voice portraying the same relief Jason felt. A second later, he winced and added, "and… I'm sorry about the fake name thing."

Zahlia laughed at that. "It's not a big deal. Go on." With that she vanished around the side of the Center, leaving the Fremont brothers alone in a momentarily paralyzing silence. Jason looked up at him again, simply taking in his features and allowing his brain to comprehend that this was actually happening. Orion seemed to be doing the same.

"Man, Jason," Orion finally said, letting out a long, low sigh. "It's so good to see you. You have no idea. I was so worried that you'd already be in Mt. Moon, or something… or that maybe you weren't even part of the Pallet Initiative." He paused, and glanced down for a second, then smiled. Jason didn't understand at first, but then realized Orion had spotted his Pokémon belt. "But I can see that you were."

"Of course," Jason said, grinning genuinely. "Second I turned twelve, wouldn't shut up about it. Drove mom—"

He cut himself off, and the stifling silence returned. Jason was reminded of a record screeching violently in the middle of a song. He let out a slow breath and continued, following a different train of thought now. "Oh man. Mom's gonna be so—she was seriously worried. We, uh, both were. We should call her, soon."

Orion blinked rapidly, and Jason couldn't tell if he was uncomfortable or fighting back an emotional display. That one realization crystallized into fear in his stomach; he couldn't necessarily read Orion like an open book anymore. He had assumed he'd be able to—that his older brother was like a fly trapped in amber, unchanged over an eight-year period of physical distance and a six-year period of zero communication.

Then Orion's indecipherable look melted into something so familiar that Jason's nerves evaporated like water on a hot stove. The helplessly sappy, self-conscious smile that was crookedly tilted to the left—Jason responded with the return of his thousand-watt grin. Orion seemed to have the same reaction to that expression as Jason had had to his. Relief shot back and forth between them, an unspoken energy that broke the already thin ice. After a fumbling moment of awkward grappling with the social "man" code, the brothers gave up and grabbed one another into a crushing hug.

"Fr'ck'n hell, man," Jason mumbled into Orion's shirt, and Orion rested his chin on Jason's head, flattening the spikes even more.

"Yeah, I know."

* * *

Jason and Orion eventually decided to visit the café where Orion had gotten his iced coffee (which had been the drink Jason had robbed him of earlier). Orion ordered a cup of decaf and Jason ordered a chocolate shake. Orion grinned and mentioned how he remembered chocolate had always been Jason's favorite, then proceeded to order vanilla coffee creamer to be contrary. Jason, unable to stop grinning, had calmly stated that vanilla was for wussies. Orion's retort that chocolate was for women earned an "ooh, burn," of defeat from Jason.

They sat in silence for a bit, sipping their beverages, enjoying each other's company too much to tarnish it with intense and unpleasant conversation so soon. Jason knew that Orion's story wouldn't be a nice one. He also knew that his stories of life with his mom would probably cause no small amount of melancholy in his brother. It was no contest at all who'd gotten the better parent. It was just Orion's luck that he'd had the short end of the stick. Jason silently hoped that Nathan Fremont hadn't put Orion through too much crap over the last seven-eight years.

Struck anew by the fact that his brother was actually outside in public without their father, Jason opened his mouth to ask at the precise moment Orion began a question of his own. They simultaneously cut themselves off, urged the other to go first, and laughed. A pretty young waitress smiled warmly at them as she refilled Jason's empty water glass and topped off the few sips Orion had taken from his.

By unspoken agreement, Jason asked his question first. "So, are you really here on your own? Or is… I mean, is dad here?" The word "dad," so seldom spoken, felt foreign and heavy on his tongue.

Orion shook his head at once, but a brief shadow crossed over his face. He looked a little sick for just a split second. "No, I'm here alone."

Jason opened his mouth to prompt him to continue, but what came out was, "How much trouble are you gonna be in, with Daniel? For taking his identity and ruining it, I mean."

Orion laughed, evidently relieved at the slight change in topic. "Poor guy will never live me down," he said, then yanked out a wallet from his back pocket. Jason's face lit up when he saw it; it was the same beat-up wallet the two brothers had decorated in their youth. Jason spotted one of his own pictures of what looked sort of like a Raichu, but could also be a deformed crab or a deadly flu microbe. Orion's drawings had always been much better, and the Electabuzz next to it was pretty good for something scrawled with a dying permanent marker.

"You still have that thing?" he asked in a quieter voice, the glee giving way to a wave of nostalgia.

"Course I do!" Orion said, grinning and pulling out his Vermillion I.D. "And this is how I'm passing as—" he lowered his voice, "as our poor cousin."

"Dude," Jason said, frowning at the I.D. and its sad state. "Oh, I can see how you're doing it. Wow, yeah, this is pretty trashed. Smart idea though."

"Inspired, yes," Orion said with fake bravado, and Jason kicked lightly at his knee under the table. Orion nudged back and Jason laughed. They shared more silence, but after a time Orion seemed to realize it was time to answer the unspoken questions.

"Well, needless to say, dad doesn't know I'm masquerading as Daniel. Well, I hope he doesn't know, yet."

"About that," Jason asked, steeling his nerves. "I mean, how's it... going? With, uh, him?" He wanted to avoid saying the awkward D-word again.

"Things are... it's really not that big a deal," Orion said, making a hand gesture as if he could scare away Jason's growing concern like a fly. "I just, I left Vermillion not too long ago. I'm sixteen, so I'm allowed to, but I didn't exactly… get permission, so to speak."

"So to speak?" Jason parroted, more to have something to say. He was simultaneously fascinated by Orion's story and unbearably uncomfortable for an unknown reason.

"By that I mean, dad had no clue I was going to leave at all. I kind of… just left." Orion blinked a few times and looked at the tabletop. "It's not a big deal," he tried again, sounding like he was trying to convince himself. "I really missed you and mom." Jason was temporarily floored at how candid and frank Orion often was when talking about feelings. Jason wasn't that way at all, at least not when it came to the sentimental, mushy stuff. It was sort of amazing that Orion had retained that ability with their father as his guardian. "How—how've you and she been?" Orion continued.

Jason smiled and allowed this topic change, not minding a chance to fill Orion in on how their mom was doing. Orion laughed at the stories of her persistent workaholism and the little ways in which Jason and she one-upped each other in their constant struggle for authority. Jason felt a two-part relief; Orion didn't seem to be sad or bitter at all about Jason's much better life, and not talking about their father seemed to be making both brothers loosen up. Orion smiled virtually the entire time. Jason's life in a nutshell took them through the rest of their drinks, and Orion absolutely insisted on picking up the tab.

"Dude, we have so much to catch up on," Jason repeated later as they sat outside the café on wrought-iron benches. "I could spend weeks recapping the stuff that's been going on back home, and I'm pretty sure you could do the same... unless you're just as boring as ever," he jabbed in good humor, giving Orion a shoulder nudge and getting himself one in return.

"Pretty boring, man, not gonna lie." Orion was poking his thumb in and out of a hole at the hem of his white long-sleeved shirt, and Jason found the motion strangely fascinating. He tried to remember if Orion had fidgety habits like that in their childhood, but he couldn't recall.

Orion let out a slow breath, and Jason knew he was about to breech an uncomfortable subject—he knew because that was precisely what Jason himself did in those situations. The mirror-image of some of his own features and traits sitting beside him was utterly surreal. "Jason, so… you and mom, you moved?"

"Yeah," Jason said at once, repositioning so he was fully facing Orion on the bench. This topic was one he didn't find uncomfortable, like talk of Nathan Fremont. He was genuinely confused about this, and couldn't wait to shed light on it. "We moved to the dojo district, up north, but we saved your address. We wrote to you, but you never wrote back."

Orion blanched, and Jason knew what he was going to say before he composed himself enough to say it. "What? I wrote to _you_ guys and never got anything back."

Jason, bewildered, shook his head and frowned. A troubled, stormy brooding crossed overhead as they absorbed what this meant.

"So, yeah. Our letters were intercepted then. Both ways."

"Sure seems that way," Orion said, his voice bleak and his expression blank except for his eyes. Orion's eyes had always been, and apparently still were utterly incapable of hiding anything he felt. Jason realized with regret that they had managed to come back to the subject of his father. It didn't take a detective to determine who had stopped all contact between them.

"Man, six years," Jason said, shaking his head. "I can't believe it. But… it doesn't matter," he continued, resolutely resolving to take control of this reunion. "What matters is that you're freaking _here_, you're a free man and you're taller than me, which is so not cool."

"I was always taller than you," Orion said with that awkward, sentimental smile again, and he took Jason in for a few more long seconds. Finally, he said, "Damn, you're all grown up."

"Aw hell, don't start with that," Jason protested, sticking his tongue out at him. "You sound like Aunt Harriet."

That set them off, and Orion seemed both delighted and horrified to learn that their most obnoxious aunt still insisted on calling Jason her "baby nephew" and gave him clothing restricted to shades of puke-worthy pastels. The conversation went from Aunt Heather's awful gifts to the much better gift Jason had received for his twelfth birthday (his Pokémon belt) and from there the floodgates were opened. Jason recounted every detail of the Expo and Initiative, the first fight with Bulbasaur and how he'd discovered that his Pokémon was a mini-zen master. He took him all the way through meeting Gina, then jumped suddenly ahead, something occurring to him.

"Gina wants to get a Boulder Badge, too," Jason said, "and after we get those we really don't need to be here, in Pewter I mean, anymore. If you needed to go somewhere, I could—I mean, if you wanted—"

Orion lifted a hand to get him to stop. "Jason, I've been hunting you down for over a month. Yes, we're sticking together. You're not getting away that easy, trust me." He smiled broadly at Jason's relieved, abashed grin, and Jason started to picture his brother as an old man in a rocking chair with enormous crow's-feet wrinkles from a lifetime of that smile. "So, Gina's been your traveling partner for a while now?"

"Yup," Jason said, right before another thought occurred to him. "So, is Zahlia your _girlfriend?_" he jabbed, grinning wickedly.

Laughing, Orion rolled his eyes. "No, she's not. Just a friend I met along the way."

"But you'd _like_ her to be, I bet!" When Orion then accused him of liking "this Gina girl," Jason allowed himself a display of shudders. "No, man. I've got no time for girls, I'm gonna be a freakin' Pokémon Master. 'Sides, she's like a guy."

"Which is probably the only reason she hasn't whooped you yet," Orion added, and Jason nodded solemnly.

"It's true. And Zahlia must be secretly a robot for not killing you either."

"I'm starting to wonder!"

"Seriously, though," Jason said, two words that rarely popped up in his vocabulary, "do you think Zahlia would, like, want to stick around if I'm there? I'm pretty sure Gina won't mind, she's pretty cool about stuff like that. Or, I think she is… she has been, so far." Suddenly not sure about anything, Jason cut himself off and waited for Orion's input before he made things any more confusing.

Orion laughed. "Honestly, I'm not even sure Zahlia would want to travel with me, period. I only met her a few days ago, and she seems ready to shove off on her own pretty soon."

"Aw, lame," Jason said. "Well, we can ask... I _am_ a level 75 in youthful charm!"

"Hah, 75? Not even close."

"Hey! I'm _very_ charming!"

The two brothers continued taking pot shots at each other on their way back to the Center, and Jason only allowed dark thoughts to occupy a few seconds of his time. He had to wonder more about the unspoken issues with their father that would have Orion roaming Kanto under a fake name. They had soldiered through the first and worst hurdles, though, and Jason ventured to hope the stabbing moments of paralyzing _what do we do now?_ were behind them. Orion challenged him to a race back to the Center, and these worries were pushed from Jason's mind. They could talk about it later.

* * *

"Well," Gina said as she tried to detangle her hair with one hand. "I think I'm pretty ready for the Gym Leader. I mean, I've been training like freaking crazy. I _hope_ I'm ready."

"Gina's got a Charmander," Jason explained to Orion, managing to make it sound like "Charmander" was code for "terminal disease." Orion gave her a sympathetic nod and Gina groaned.

"Don't say it like that! Fire-types are awesome!"

The four of them were sitting together outside an ice cream parlor ("Stone Cold Ice Cream") and were more or less enjoying their cold treats and the setting sun. Zahlia, who did indeed seem very out of place at this table, was mostly keeping quiet. The talk of training seemed to interest her the most out of anything so far though, and she finally spoke up. "What else do you have, besides Charmander?"

"Nidoran and Pidgey," Gina supplied reluctantly. Zahlia merely took on a thoughtful look for a while, and Gina turned back to Jason. "You're ready with Bulbasaur, you think?" she asked a little doubtfully.

"Well, with the type advantage in my favor, yeah, I think so. Shouldn't be too terrible."

Orion dug his spoon around in his mint chocolate chip, thinking. "Well, type advantage isn't everything. Unless, of course, you have all Normal-types against Ghosts." He smiled slightly, as did Zahlia, as if this was an inside joke of sorts. Jason was going to ask, but Gina got her question out first.

"Zahlia, you're a trainer too, right? Are you on a Master journey?"

Zahlia hesitated a moment before answering. "Yes, I am a trainer, but no, I'm not on a Master journey." She was also picking at her cup of green tea ice cream, not actually eating much of it.

Jason had to admit, he wasn't too sure what to make of Zahlia. She seemed pretty cool, if a little reserved—a personality trait Jason never really understood. He changed his opinion at once when he heard that she had a Gastly as her team, though; Zahlia was now positively _badass_. He shamelessly begged her to show it off after their ice cream, and even though Orion tried to get him to calm down, Jason would not be swayed. Gina too looked on the verge of breaking down and begging alongside Jason, but made a valiant effort to hide it. Her look of keen interest gave her away though.

"It's really not a big deal," Zahlia said, smiling at Orion, who had covered his embarrassed grin with his hands. "My Pokémon seems to know that people think he's cool. I think he enjoys the attention."

"Yes!" Jason said, jumping up. "Can we see him now?"

"In a bit!" Orion said, laughing and jabbing Jason in the ribs to get him to sit. "Yeesh, where do you get your hyperactivity from?"

"I'm _twelve_," Jason said, rolling his eyes, "Duh!"

"But _I'm_ normal," Gina pondered aloud, grinning as Jason made a face at her. Zahlia chuckled softly at their antics and Orion was smiling ear-to-ear by the time the waiter asked them if they wanted anything else. Jason, reunited with his brother, full of ice cream, and about to see a Ghost-type Pokémon for the first time in his life, could not believe his luck.


	9. Walk of Shame :Gina:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 9: Walk of Shame

(Gina Ikeda)

The closer the group got to the Gym the more nervous Gina felt. Errant thoughts kept speeding through her head: if she was about to lose her first Gym battle, did she _really _want three people there watching her? What did the inside of the Gym look like? How fast-paced would the fight be? If she lost, would she be teleported to the Center? Jason had told her about the sensation and she was not eager to try it.

Her biggest fear was not losing, per se, but being the one who was holding everyone back in the end. She had her doubts that Bulbasaur was strong enough to take on the Gym Leader by himself, but if Jason and Bulbasaur _did _win and Gina did not, it would be for her that they hung around Pewter, twiddling their thumbs while she trained like crazy. Her anxiety kept building until they stood in front of the Gym itself.

Jason seemed excited beyond belief, but also a little subdued, like he finally realized how serious this was. "Well," he said, glancing around. "We just gonna, go in?"

"That's traditionally the first step," Orion teased, but Gina spoke up.

"Guys, if you don't mind... could I try first?" It was an impulsive request, and Jason for one looked surprised. "I'd sort of like to go in there alone, if that's okay."

"Yeah, sure, whatever you want," Jason said, curious. "Something up?"

"Well, if I lose—" she raised her hand to stop Jason from interrupting. "_If, _then I want to have a head's start on healing up my team so, you know, I won't be—"

"You're not holding us back. She's not holding us back," Jason said, turning to Orion for support. "Right?"

"Right," Orion said, and even Zahlia gave her a small reassuring smile. For some reason that just made Gina more nervous.

"Well," she said, wanting to get this over with already. "Here I go."

"Good luck!" was the general consensus from behind her, and Gina took a deep breath and pushed in through the big double-doors.

Upon first glance, the Gym appeared abandoned. The air conditioners were all running, but there wasn't anyone in sight and all the lights were off. Gina considered coming back outside to report this. Perhaps Mr. Armstrong had stepped out to get something? Feeling like a trespasser, but knowing that the Gym should be open at this time of day, Gina wandered a bit further inside. She wished she had left the door propped open just in case she was now locked in the dark.

"Hello?" she tried tentatively, creeping as far as she could while blind. She caught sight of sudden movement above and peered up into the darkness, straining her eyes to catch it again.

"Someone there?" called down a gruff, clipped voice, thick with some kind of accent. It was coming from the ceiling. "Hold on. I'll be right down."

Suddenly Gina's heart was hammering in earnest. She wound her hand around Charmander's Pokéball and took a few deep breaths. This was it.

"Oy, could you turn on the lights for me?" the voice called again, and Gina frantically looked around her for the standard set of light switches. "'Fraid they're a bit more complicated than that. You'll find a—" the voice got cut off and a large crash sounded from above. "Ow. You'll find a fuse box hidden behind the rock at the wall, just behind ya and to your right… the big, flat rock with the little… yes, that one!" he called as Gina's fingers looped into a deliberate hole and clicked open the small door. A flickering light went on above it so she could see the rusty switches labelled with masking tape inside the rock-box. "Now, hit switches one, three, five, seven, nine. But don't hit eleven and thirteen, whatever you do. Now you can continue on to fifteen, seventeen, and nineteen. Excellent! Thanks."

Gina closed the door, blinking myopically around the now-lit Gym. Wondering why the Leader had been working in the dark up on the balcony, she stuffed her hands in her pockets and waited.

A man roughly four times her size came lumbering down a stairwell that seemed too small to accommodate him. He wasn't overweight, but his sheer bulk was intimidating. Gina vaguely estimated that she could probably fit her entire body into the space one of his legs took up.

"You want a battle, I assume?" the man asked, wiping dusty hands on tattered blue jeans.

Gina nodded, only half-aware of what she was saying. "Yeah… if it's not too much trouble."

The mountain of a man had been lumbering across the dry expanse of rocks, but paused to glance at her from under shaggy eyebrows. He shook his head. "Kid, it's my job. It's no trouble."

Gina scuffed at the ground with her sneaker, abashed.

"You're a new trainer, ah?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Pallet Initiative?"

"Yes, sir."

"Right, then. Well, I'm Jerry Armstrong, which you've probably gathered. And if you were curious, no, Brock's not coming back."

"Brock?" Gina asked, unable to stop herself in spite of her nerves.

"Yeah, Brock, don't tell me you haven't even heard of _him_."

"Oh, no sir, I have. Just, I thought Ando was the leader after him."

Armstrong heaved a huge sigh. "Brock took over again, after Ando. Then me. One day I'll get rid of that sign out there and won't need to do this runaround anymore."

Gina thought it was extremely odd and a little rude that Armstrong made it sound as if she had barged in here asking questions. He had been the one to start this topic, after all. Still, her curiosity was piqued. Why had Brock come out of retirement to run his Gym for such a short time instead of passing it down to someone else?

Armstrong wasn't going to elaborate, though. "Well, since you're an Initiate, you get the option of a one-on-one battle. If not, I'll do the traditional two."

Gina swallowed hard. Her nerves were back full force. She tensed up and clutched Charmander's Pokéball so tightly she was surprised he didn't pop out and roast her for trying to crush him alive. Her pride wanted to accept a two-Pokémon battle, but in the interest of Charmander and his type disadvantage, she said, "One, please."

"Very well," Armstrong said, selecting from behind a large rock what appeared to be a shoebox of Pokéballs. Gina gaped at him, wondering why he kept them down here where anyone could waltz in and take one. He paused while pawing around in the dilapidated cardboard and looked up her. "What level is your top?"

Gina blanked for a second. "Ten."

Armstrong nodded as if this was reasonable and selected a seemingly random Pokéball before unceremoniously slapping the lid back and stuffing the others out of sight. Gina was still a little put off by this display, but when he smiled from behind his thick, shaggy beard, Gina snapped back into focus. "You ready?"

"Yeah," she said, pleased that her voice, unlike her knees, wasn't shaking.

In unison they swung back and pitched their Pokémon in question out onto the dusty, rocky battlefield. Charmander materialized and shook his head out, sniffing the air, and Armstrong's Pokéball released a small shape that soon materialized into a Geodude.

Gina felt weak with relief. She'd expected it to be Onix, and in all honesty she wasn't sure she could beat one. This deceptively small, gravity-defying boulder seemed the easier of the two by far.

In just about any situation, the challenger was given first attack. The exception to this rule was when battling a Gym Leader. Gina muttered a few words of warning to Charmander and braced herself just as much as her Pokémon was, awaiting the Tackle attack that would no doubt come in just a moment's time. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins fiercely.

"Defense Curl!" Armstrong called, and, wickedly thrown off, Gina watched as Geodude's long, rocky arms wrapped around itself. The soft shifting of stone and scraping gravel reached her ears. The lights reflected off Geodude's stony brow a bit brighter, and Gina realized, with a wave of awe, that it had made its very skin harder.

Gina was a bit worried, as she'd been counting on an attack to gauge how powerful Geodude was compared to Charmander. Now it was her turn, and she stammered out, "Ah, um. Scratch!" Charmander practically flew at the rocky figure, lashing out with both sets of fierce little claws.

Charmander might as well have been a fly bouncing haphazardly off the hide of a three-ton Rhyhorn. Geodude looked bored and tired as it executed Armstrong's order of "Tackle!" Charmander was slammed brutally into the dusty ground.

Gina was beside herself with horror. That attack was so much more powerful than she could have anticipated. She swore under her breath and quickly detached a Pokéball from her belt just in case she had to call her Pokémon back. To her utter astonishment, a snort of strain and frustration sounded from the shallow crater Geodude had created, and, miraculously, the face of her orange companion appeared from the dust. Charmander was trying to pull himself up and continue the battle, but Gina knew that it was only a matter of time. That first attack had clearly put into sharp perspective just how hopeless Charmander's most reliable offensive technique would be.

Charmander was growling ferociously, raising the small stubs of what would someday be wings on his back. He seemed to have recovered a little, and was ready for more. That was more than Gina could say for herself. "Ember," she said helplessly, hoping the fire technique could be used to some effect. If this was not the case, she would rather forfeit than see her Pokémon endure any more abuse. It was amazing that her Dex hadn't started beeping yet.

Charmander snorted and blew sporadic flames at Geodude, but Geodude shied away from the worst of it and barely sustained any damage. It didn't even look like the Rock-type had tried very hard to dodge. Gina's heart sank. She just hoped Charmander would last one more turn so he could be recalled without a total K.O.

"Let's finish this," Armstrong was saying, shrugging his shoulders and motioning forward with one meaty hand. "Another Tackle attack ought to do it."

Before Gina could even form a coherent thought Geodude had rushed forward and slammed roughly into Charmander, sending him flying. Charmander was struggling to get up, even now; her starter was transcending stubborn and bordering on insane. "No, buddy," Gina said, struggling to keep her composure. She felt so guilty watching him shakily stand again, crouch low and await her next order. Her Dex had started beeping at some point; she had barely heard it until now. "Next time."

Charmander actually didn't put up a fight as Gina recalled him. That alone spoke volumes about how exhausted he must be. She felt numb and rubbery.

"Better luck next time," Armstrong called, dusting himself off.

Gina flushed red and turned away from the man, unable to thank him for taking time out of his schedule to face off against her. She was ready to dart from the vicinity when he called out behind her back, "Not so fast. You gotta take Geodude with you back to the Center. He'll just lead you up to the doors and leave then."

Gina spun around, horrified. "What? But I have two other Pokémon who are still fine."

"Sorry," Armstrong said. "It's protocol. We have to avoid lawsuits and all that."

"I'm not going to run off into Route 3 like an idiot and—" Gina realized how childish she was being midway through that sentence, and covered her face with her hand, ashamed for about 101 reasons. "I'm sorry. Never mind."

Armstrong looked surprised for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Believe me, if it were up to me I'd let you go back there on your own, but you know how it is…" Gina nodded, feeling about as big as one of the dust motes still floating around the room. "I'll be seeing you again in a while, I imagine?"

Gina nodded numbly before realizing what he meant: a rematch. Flushing with renewed shame, she muttered, "yeah," before turning and practically fleeing out the door, a very solemn Rock-type hovering after her every step.

* * *

"Oh, jeez," Jason kept saying, which was certainly not helping Gina feel better. "Oh jeez. And Charmander is what, level nine?"

"Ten," Gina said glumly.

"_Ten?_" he asked, and she struggled not to snap at him. "Ten? And I thought I could win at level eight. Jeez."

Everyone in Pewter seemed to know this walk of shame, and although Gina tried to hide her face it was no use. People were chuckling, shaking their heads, smirking, and fondly recapping their youthful Gym battles as they watched her and her companions walk back. She wished ardently that the stupid rock would just turn around and float home. She furiously hated the idiots who had been so dumb as to run crying out into the wild and get attacked by Pokémon after a Gym defeat. She despised the policymakers who had decided she deserved the "right" to have a boulder escort. A (very small) part of her knew this was the law, the standard safety procedure, but she could be moody if she wanted.

_Will I ever win a proper battle against another human being?_ Gina thought glumly, switching to feeling utterly sorry for herself as Geodude drifted toward the Pokémon Center's double doors. _Or am I doomed to fight wild Pidgeys and Caterpies for the rest of my life?_

Jason seemed pretty entranced by the sight of the Geodude, which was good. It was distracting him from his never-ending "jeez"es. No doubt he was sizing up the Pokémon, wondering if he had the firepower to beat it in battle.

Gina's thoughts took another dark turn. _Not that it's shocking, really. Ooh, look at me! I'm a newbie trainer with a Fire-type at level _ten_, and I expect to beat the Gym Leader on my first try!_

Her inner voice sounded like Amaris sometimes, or Amaris dreadfully mixed with her mother. The combination was indeed disturbing, blending heavy sarcasm with a "you'll-think-twice-next-time" tone that had her dragging her feet miserably. They'd finally reached the doors and Gina glared at Geodude until it seemed satisfied that she was going to go in. It turned around somberly and began its journey back to the Gym.

"Jeez," Jason said, watching it go. Gina pushed her way into the Center, desperate to heal up Charmander and get into some A.C.

Zahlia and Orion were wisely not saying anything. They talked amongst themselves occasionally, and once Gina had set Charmander up with the receptionist, she took a seat at the cafe and was joined by the others shortly. She felt a little less guilty now that Charmander was at least on his way to being healed.

By the time their waiter came and took away the menus, Gina was feeling back to mostly neutral. She could not muster up happy by a long shot, but her intense bout of misery seemed to have run its course. It also helped that Jason had managed to get her on the subject of Brock, and now they were asking rhetorical questions around the table.

"That's pretty weird, yeah," Jason said, rolling his fork between his hands. "Brock comes out of retirement to run the Gym again for like what... a few years at the most? The 'temporary' sign there looked like it'd been up since before I was born."

Orion spoke up. "What's strange is that none of us knew about any of this earlier. You'd think we'd have heard about something as major as one of the original Gym Leader's sons, also a Gym Leader, dying under debatable circumstances. Also, no one seemed to know that Brock came out of retirement for a while. Heck, do we even know if he's still in Pewter City?"

"He's probably re-retired by now," Gina reasoned. I mean, he'd be what..." she did some quick math. "66 now or what? I'd re-retire to Cinnabar Island or something."

Jason shrugged. "It really does just seem weird. What do you think?" he asked Zahlia suddenly.

Zahlia was quiet for a moment, then said, "Gym Leaders often lead pretty secretive lives. I'm not surprised that the public doesn't know everything about Brock's life, or Ando's."

Maybe Gina was just crazy, but it seemed to her that everyone at the table with her got quiet at that statement. She frowned slightly and was going to mention it, but their food came out right then. Their strange moment of stony-faced silence was still on her mind, but the spell had been broken. The others seemed to think nothing of it, and were now busy starting on their food. Gina filed it away in her "weird things to check up on later" file. This file also had the Brock/Ando mysteryin it, as well as a note to figure out how someone as irritating as Amaris could exist without ripping a hole in the time-space continuum.

* * *

The next day Jason woke Gina up at the unforgivable hour of eight a.m. At first she could not comprehend that he was actually outside her door, awake and ready to train this early. She was also having a hard time understanding how he could expect to live after waking her up before noon. Surely he must know his life was now forfeit.

"The heck are you so perky?" Gina growled at him.

"Coffee," Jason said, grinning at her in a rather frightening way.

"I thought you hate coffee," Gina said, rubbing life into her face as well as she could.

"I do, but Orion gave me this thing called an iced latte, and it's gooood. I'll get you one, come on! Then Bulbasaur and I are gonna kick! Yo! Ass!" He grabbed Gina's arm and began tugging her out of the room.

"Hold yer freakin' horses man! I haven't even brushed my teeth yet, crazy frickin'..." Gina trailed off and grabbed her bathroom bag to storm off to the showers, still grumbling under her breath while Jason bounced on the balls of his feet near her doorway.

One shower, morning hot cocoa and sulk session later, Gina was feeling remotely human again. Jason seemed to be coming down just a little off his caffeine high, but he was milking every last ounce of it to annoy the living daylights out of Orion, whose new motto was "never again!" Zahlia seemed to find this all very amusing, in as expressive a way as she usually did (which was a smile and soft chuckling.) Gina and the others made their way out to the back of the Center, which was quite empty.

"See," Gina grumbled, just for the sake of bugging Jason, "Normal people are still asleep."

"Normal people aren't gonna kick yo ass!" Jason said.

"Yeah, just abnormal people like you," she countered, and Orion rewarded her with a "ooooooh _served!_"

Jason and she sent out their starters, and Zahlia, who had never seen them before, crouched down on the side of their makeshift battlefield, her expression one of keen interest.

"Ladies first!" Jason said, and Gina shuddered and grimaced, flashing back to Amaris' taunt during her first trainer battle.

"Challengers first," she said, and just because it seemed to be a teasing kind of day, "you know I'm gonna win anyway!"

Jason laughed at that and said, "We'll see! Bulbasaur, Tackle!"

Bulbasaur took time to do the Poké-stretches Jason had told her about, but up till now, Gina had not seen in battle. She frowned at the display and looked up at Jason, surprised.

"See?" he said, gesturing wildly at Bulbasaur. "See what I mean?"

Bulbasaur made a "meh" sound and bounded forward to Charmander, ducking low for a tackle. Charmander tucked and rolled out of the way, and looked about ready to leap at Bulbasaur. Gina hurried to say, "Scratch!" and Charmander's second of hesitation turned into a retaliatory assault on Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur buffed off the attack though, and Jason shouted "again!"

Bulbasaur hit Charmander this time, since they were in such close quarters, and the battle began in earnest. Jason and Gina found that they really didn't need to shout orders anymore. The spar was quite evenly matched; since neither Pokémon could really use their elemental attacks yet, they were reduced to their Normal-type attacks and it was a close shave.

Bulbasaur executed a neat duck-slide and cracked Charmander good in the jaw with his head. Charmander back-flipped to get back on his feet, twisted his head to the side to remove the crick in his neck, and scratched at Bulbasaur's flank. The two Pokémon jumped back from each other in unison, breathing hard, and seemed to come to the conclusion that their spar session was done. Bulbasaur dropped down into more stretches, and Charmander, glancing at him occasionally, mimicked them with some interest. Gina and Jason exchanged a look—they had not given more than two commands in the entire battle.

"Well," she said.

"Yup. We were pretty useful in that fight, I'd say."

"Oh yeah."

Orion laughed and poured some PokéChow out on the pavement for the two fighters. They crowded around it and began to eat, and Orion let out Meowth as well. The three Pokémon got acquainted, sniffing each other's faces and muttering quietly in soft noises. The trainers sat down on the benches nearby and watched them.

"Man," Orion said, watching them eat. "It's really inspirational. I mean, we've got a lizard, a cat, and a..." he paused at Bulbasaur, and frowned. "And a, a plant-dinosaur-thing, all getting along with no trouble. Makes you wonder why humans can't do that."

"Yeah," Gina said, sipping a drink. "You're right."

"Ohh man! I think Bulbasaur upped a level!" Jason said, totally missing the profound moment as he peered at the team through his Dex. "Charmander might be close too. Hey, we should try out our elemental attacks soon!"

Bulbasaur looked up at Jason with an incredulous look, and Charmander snorted smoke from his nostrils as if laughing.

"Well, I mean, don't try Ember on Bulbasaur, or anything," Jason amended. "That would be pretty lame."

Gina laughed. "I won't." Jason's leg was jumping around nonstop, and Gina shifted closer to the edge of the bench so he wouldn't bump into her so much. She gave Orion a withering look. "Never again?"

"_Never_ again," he promised her. "No more coffee for you, _ever_."

Jason once again did not hear them. "We ready to train some more yet?"

It would be the first unison-sigh of many that Orion and Gina shared.

* * *

_Author's Note: Okay folks! Next chapter we'll be meeting some new people in a different area. Hope the transition isn't too jarring. I promise I won't shower you in billions of characters: these next people from chapter 10 will be the last new ones you'll see for a long time.  
_


	10. Lather, Rinse, Repeat :Victoria:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 10: Lather, Rinse, Repeat

(Victoria Larson)

Life was abjectly boring for Victoria Larson. For the past six months each day had brought about the same routine: her sister would wake her up, they would grab breakfast at some establishment with terrible customer service, and would proceed to plan out the day's training venture on their deteriorating map of Kanto. Beth would be cheerful and spunky, Victoria would need serious caffeination to not verbally abuse her, they would argue about which route to take, and eventually settle on some dull, bug-infested side path. Training would continue for however long they felt like battling the underbrush, food would be consumed, and hardly any words would be exchanged. They had run out of exciting things to talk about six months ago. When it was all done they would return to the Center of whatever town they were in, drop off their teams, and have a quiet dinner at some establishment with terrible customer service. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Victoria and Beth were sitting at a two-person table in a shabby little restaurant with rather good pancakes and rather dimwitted waiters, waiting for their tab. Victoria had flagged their server down multiple times and was on the verge of marching up and demanding to speak to the manager. Only Beth's worried plea of, "five more minutes!" kept her in her seat. For the past few moments she had been gazing absently out the window, trying to remember how long it would take to reach Lavender Town on foot. She found that her thoughts kept wandering back to creative ways to murder the restaurant staff, though.

It was still kind of early in the morning, around seven, but since it was July the sun was already shining over the eastern mountain ranges. Saffron City was a nice place to tourist around in, but Victoria liked it for a different reason. Saffron was essentially the mid-point of Kanto, and if she and Beth were here they could head out to any one of four different towns and routes to capture or train Pokémon; Cerulean to the north, Vermilion to the south, Lavender to the east and Celadon to the west; the "main quadrant" as it was called.

She and her sister had already been to Celadon; they wouldn't need to return there in any hurry. Vermilion and Cerulean were always options, but for some reason Victoria felt inclined to trek the lonely path to Lavender town. She had heard the Pokémon Tower there was severely haunted, which usually just meant that there were tough Pokémon in the area.

Beth smiled sweetly at their waiter as he managed to wander their way from whatever idiot cloud he had been lost in. He gave them their bill and tried to wander off, but Victoria's quick fingers reached out and snatched his arm before he could leave. She opened the black folder containing their receipt and her green eyes tore over it shrewdly. A scowl came to her face and she shoved it back at him. "This isn't ours. Please attempt to bring us _our _check this time, and if it's not too much trouble, maybe in the next century?"

"Tory," Beth pleaded quietly, burying her face in her hands. The waiter looked abashed.

"Thank you," Victoria said with venomous sweetness.

* * *

Branches. The theme of the day was branches.

Victoria swatted away what felt like the thousandth bramble as it reached desperately for her already marred and scratched face. Heaving a sigh, she stomped quickly through more underbrush, still looking for a clearing. She didn't care how big it was, so long as it was a clearing.

Perhaps this route hadn't been as good an idea as it had seemed before. Victoria had had no idea that the unconventional path to Lavender would be so… unconventional.

Beth bounced happily behind her, every so often exclaiming as she thought she saw a place to sit, only to take it back a moment later and confirm that it was just "a kind of flat looking bush."

The two sisters had started out into the underbrush about half an hour after Victoria had unleashed an onslaught of verbal abuse upon the restaurant's manager and earned her sister and herself 50% off of their meal. It was one in the afternoon now, and there was no sign of rest, or even wild Pokémon, anywhere.

Victoria sighed again, making it as terse and stressed-sounding as she could. It just made her feel better to do it. She knew that all this "roughing it" would pay off tremendously if, _if_, they found any tough Pokémon here to battle. In theory, the deeper one got into the forests or caves the stronger the wilds would be, and the more their own teams would learn from the experience of battling them.

Beth, who was somehow undaunted by all of this, had now taken up the most annoying practice of jumping up and down to see over Victoria's red-haired head into the brambles that lay before them.

"Ooh! I think—I see—one! For real this time," she shouted enthusiastically, her voice distorted from jumping.

"Great," Victoria said, half-listening. She could have sworn she heard something like disturbed leaves up ahead, and was straining to hear more. "Would you please—"

Victoria didn't even get a chance to finish her thought, for they were interrupted by what looked and sounded like a patch of forest exploding. Victoria threw her hands up over her face just in time; branches, leaves, dirt and rocks showered her, and she coughed in spasms as she had been unlucky enough to inhale right then. Screaming shrieks filled the air around them, and though unable to see, Victoria did not need to look to know this was bad. "Other way!" she shouted at Beth, reaching behind her, finding her sister's stomach, and pushing her away.

The two sisters were soon tearing through the underbrush, beating the trail they had just flattened, not stopping for scraped skin or torn clothing. Victoria managed to look behind her shoulder just once, and saw that they were being pursued by what looked like every Fearow in the main quadrant.

"Keep going!" Victoria shouted as Beth hesitated for a fraction of a second, almost causing her sister to slam into her. "Don't stop!"

"My phone just—"

"_Go!_"

Victoria felt a beak snap on her shirt, and she jumped forward with just enough strength to pull herself free. She felt a draft on her back and realized that it had torn a large swatch of the fabric completely off. Curses were on loop in her mind.

"Our teams," Beth shouted, unable to make a longer sentence.

"No time!" Victoria shouted back, wishing direly that they had had their Pokemon out with them through this ordeal. She struggled to remember how much farther they had to go: if it was much longer to get to the main dirt road, they would have no choice but to try to fight off the Fearow. She was so not looking forward to that.

Just when Victoria was ready to shout the order to turn and fight, something else flashed in the corner of her eye and her head whipped to follow the movement. She did not have time to shout a warning at Beth, though; the underbrush burst open again, and many figures jumped out.

It was instinct, and it paid off. Victoria jumped at Beth, grabbed her around the middle, and tumbled to the ground. A second later a burst of flame soared overhead where they had just been. Beth screamed and put her hands over her head. Victoria squinted and coughed anew in the heat from the fire, eyes watering. She struggled to see what in the world was going on.

She saw them then, through the heat haze and smoke; two Growlithe were sending fire at the birds, who were screeching and screaming and beating their wings against it. Victoria swore colorfully at the top of her lungs, unable to hold it in. Wild Growlithe now too, on top of it? They were freaking toast.

"Beth," she said, and Beth, thank God, snapped out of her wide-eyed disbelief enough to listen carefully. "Send out your team, quick."

Beth nodded and fumbled with her Pokémon belt, managing to detach one and hit the button. A second later Staryu appeared, instinctively moving to shield them from the cacophony of heat, flapping and wailing that was so close. Victoria and Beth were now waiting for an opportunity to strike, unsure when the battle would turn towards them.

When a young man stepped out of the clearing, Victoria thought she was hallucinating. He pointed at the Fearow flock and a second later a gray shape shot forward and slammed into the largest bird with an audible thud. The Fearow screamed in rage and tried what looked like Drill Peck on the gray shape, which took the damage with a screeching scrape of beak on something hard. Victoria figured it had to be some kind of Rock-type Pokemon. This situation was so insane she felt delirious with disbelief. Three humans attacked by every kind of wild Pokémon imaginable when mere minutes ago there had been nothing!

There was more movement just out of Victoria's line of sight, but Beth narrated what she was seeing aloud. "A girl!" she said, pointing, and Victoria took her word for it. It was starting to dawn on her that the boy and girl were probably trainers as well, and if they were very lucky, some of these vicious Pokémon belonged to them. Victoria sent out one of her own, just in case. Bellsprout materialized and seemed instantly nervous about the amount of fire around, but loyally stood ground beside Staryu nevertheless.

Victoria had to admit, these Fearow were tenacious. The Geodude (at least, she was pretty sure it was a Geodude, it was so fast) was doing wicked damage, and the fire just kept on coming in bursts of heat. It seemed like hours had passed before the lead Fearow crowed angrily and the flock banked up, kicking up flurries of dirt, rocks and leaves again. Victoria had to close her eyes once more, and when she was able to open them again, the Fearow were gone.

In their place was the young man, leaning over her and peering down. Victoria blinked dirt from her eyes and took in his features: long black hair was held back in a ponytail, darkly tanned skin stretched over a strong jaw and lead down to a sculpted collarbone. He wore no shirt beneath a thick gray mountaineering vest and had brown eyes that were regarding her with concern.

"You two alright?" the boy asked, extending a hand to Victoria. Victoria looked at it as if she wasn't quite sure what it was, and nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound that filled the forest next.

"_Cheeee-hooooo!_ Gav, did you see that? Hell yes! We just whooped like fifty Fearow! Oh, are the girls okay?"

The last bit was tacked on as if an afterthought, and Victoria managed to snap out of her stupor and refuse the offered hand, shakily putting her hands down in the dirt and pushing herself into a sitting position. Beth accepted the guy's help up and leaned against a tree as soon as she was upright. She looked vaguely ill.

Another figure stepped into view, and Victoria's fried brain could barely comprehend that this was probably the source of the "_cheeee-hooooo!_" She instantly figured they had to be siblings. Both shared the same black hair, bronzed skin and well-defined jawline. The girl was very skinny though, like a kid who had been hit with a sudden growth spurt. Her shirt was flaming red, and Victoria wondered how she had managed to miss her earlier.

"I think they're okay," Gav responded to his probable sibling. He turned to Victoria again. "Can you stand?"

"Yes," she answered, too harshly, and felt immediately bad. To prove it, she pushed herself up off the ground and fought the exhaustion-wobble in her legs. "Thank you," she added, finally realizing how out of breath she was.

"Have you ever seen so many Fearow around here?" the girl was asking Gav now, still hyped up on the fight. "I swear I haven't seen that many!"

"No," Gav responded, only half-paying attention. "Are those yours?" he asked, pointing at Staryu and Bellsprout, who seemed to have relaxed slightly now that the immediate threat was gone.

"Yeah," Beth responded for them, and recalled Staryu with the Pokéball that seemed to be clutched in a death grip in her right hand. Victoria did the same for Bellsprout.

"Kaylee," Gav said to his probable-sister, "can you scout ahead to make sure the path is clear?" To Victoria, he said, "Come on, come get some water at our campsite."

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Victoria removed her shoes wearily and threw them with conviction in a random direction. One shoe hit a tree and bounced away as her exhausted feet cried in release.

She had to admit, Gav and Kaylee's campsite was pretty swanky as far as campsites went. Under normal circumstances following two complete strangers (one of whom was a boy) into the woods would be very high on her list of things _not_ to do, but given the scenario she figured this one time was okay. Beth, once she had recovered her ability of speech, had praised the two with never-ending gratitude as well as a torrent of Pokémon-related questions. Her sister seemed to have recovered fairly well and was bouncing around with Kaylee, who took to her babble extremely well. Victoria just zoned out and watched her sister's chestnut brown hair swish back and forth in its ponytail as she followed behind, feeling brain dead.

Victoria sat down on a straw mat that served as a common area between two tents. One tent was rather small, while the other was fairly large. A hibachi was cooling to one side and a rope had been tied off between two trees where clothing was drip-drying. There was a small bucket of soapy water off to one side, and what looked like a brown accordion file full of paper. This was the one thing that looked enormously out of place to Victoria, and she frowned at it as she rubbed her left foot absently. A few seconds later Beth came over to her with considerably less gusto than normal. She seemed to have run out of her brief bout of "_you saved us!_" adrenaline. "Hey, Vee…" she said, dropping down next to her sister and stretching out like a sunbathing cat. "Nice place, isn't it?"

"Uh-huh," she responded, unable to think of a better one. Gav emerged from the large tent with two small cups that looked like thermos lids. He handed one to each sister and they drank greedily of the lukewarm water. Gav placed the thermos down between them and said, "There's more where that came from," before disappearing back into the large tent.

All in all, the day wasn't exactly going the way Victoria had planned.

Kaylee emerged from the small tent, tossing her black slippers much the way Victoria had.

Beth smiled wearily at her. "Hi."

Awkward silence reigned for what felt like an eternity. At some point Gav returned. Kaylee ran her fingers through her hair, removing leaves. Gav coughed. Beth fidgeted. Victoria struggled to get her brain back online.

"So, thank you for saving us from rabid, horrible Fearow," Victoria said, unable to sound anything other than deadpan. "Thank you for the water. You guys should charge people for your rescuing services." Kaylee laughed, and Gav smiled warmly at her. Victoria couldn't work up the energy to smile back. "We'll be out of your hair now."

"Really?" Gav asked, looking uncertain about that idea. "You both just ran for your lives for quite a while. It's totally okay if you rest up."

"Please?" Beth asked, and Kaylee laughed again at Beth's theatrically pathetic expression.

Victoria really did want to get back to Saffron, or on to Lavender, as soon as humanly possible. Seeing Beth's exhaustion stopped her though, and she said, "Sorry," to Gav and Kaylee.

"No!" Kaylee insisted. "It'll be fun, we haven't seen other people in like months."

"Way to go, Kay," Gav said, grinning plastically. "We're just a pair of creepy mountain hermits after all."

Beth giggled, but Victoria was now a bit nervous. It must have shown on her face, because Gav smiled reassuringly again. "We've been camping forever, but I assure you we won't be skinning you or holding you hostage."

"We only do that on Tuesdays," Kaylee added, wiggling her eyebrows.

Victoria heaved a sigh and found herself laying down on the straw mat against her will. All this awkward humor was draining what little energy she had left. That was her last thought as a blink turned into a sudden narcoleptic nap.

* * *

When Victoria awoke, the sun was down.

She sat up abruptly, sucking in a choked breath of air, and felt a huge spike of aggressive adrenaline pierce her middle. For a sickening second she had no clue where she was.

Bit by bit the day came back to her. Swearing, Victoria kicked and flailed in what felt like sheets, threw them off, and crawled around blindly until she felt vinyl fabric. It took her an impossibly long time to find the zipper, and when she threw the tent door open firelight flooded her vision and temporarily blinded her.

When her sight came back she saw Gav, Kaylee and Beth sitting around a fireplace. One of the Growlithe was napping, curled up on the side. Beth had a blanket around her shoulders, a plate of some sort of food in one hand and a thermos-cover cup in her other. She grinned broadly at Victoria and tried to wave, but found she had no free hands. "Vee!" she said, "Come get food."

"What time is it?" Victoria demanded, and Gav, who was looking at a small LCD screen on a strange chunky handheld device, said, "Eight o'clock. Feel better?"

The unpleasant surprise that she had slept for six hours in a stranger's tent did nothing to improve her mood. There was the question of how the heck she had gone from the straw mat outside to inside the tent as well. Victoria struggled against her temper and took a few deep, calming breaths.

"Beth, we really have to go."

"But..." Beth said, looking helplessly around at Gav and Kaylee. Kaylee jumped in.

"It's super late! Just crash with us tonight, it's no biggie, promise."

"No thank you," Victoria said, but Beth interrupted.

"Seriously Tory, I don't want to go back down when it's dark."

"Then why," Victoria snapped, losing this battle with keeping her temper in check, "did you not wake me up? While we're at it, how the hell did I even get in there?" She jabbed a thumb back at the tent as if it had wronged her. She'd made a valiant effort at civil and cool, but if they wanted to be difficult she could do difficult.

"You... you seemed like you needed sleep," Beth said, and frowned at her. "You don't remember going over there? I asked if you wanted to get out of the sun and you got up long enough to move."

Victoria ground her teeth and stared at her sister, knowing the odds of her lying were slim but feeling suspicious nevertheless. Victoria had been known to growl random phrases out while half-asleep that she could not recall at all in the morning. She glared at Gav, wondering why he didn't speak up. Everything was infuriating her, including the way he kept poking around on his handheld device.

"Really can't advise walking around here at night," Gav said. "Specially not now that we know Fearow roost here. If it'll make you feel better you two can sleep in one tent with all your stuff, and Kay and I will sleep in the other. You should be able to hear us if we try to sneak in and steal from you."

He said it so matter-of-factly, with zero parts bitterness, and Victoria was temporarily taken off-guard. She stared at him, confused, and Kaylee spoke up again.

"You think we'd steal from you?" she asked, sounding a lot more hurt than her probable brother.

"_I_ don't think so," Beth hurriedly assured her, and Victoria had to take more deep breaths to stop from snapping at all of them.

"Sit," Gav said, still not looking up from his device. "We have food."

"And it's not poisoned!" Beth said, showing Victoria her mostly-cleaned plate.

"Or it's very slow-acting poison," Kaylee said, making yet another creepy joke. Victoria was not sure how much more of this she could handle.

In all reality, Victoria knew that leaving now was out of the question. They would end up having to stay, but all three of them were delusional if they thought Victoria was sleeping a wink. She would pull an all-nighter and would dropkick anyone who tried anything funny. With this thought in mind she sat down on her knees, face set in a stony expression.

Kaylee snorted. "Miss Congeniality," she teased. "Thirsty?"

As much as she hated to admit it, she was. "Yes," she said robotically.

Gav handed her the cup he'd been holding. "Didn't drink from it yet," he assured her. A second later he shut down his handheld and stretched.

"He emerges from cyberland!" Kaylee crowed, and Gav made a face at her.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, pocketing the device. He turned to Victoria and smiled. "Seriously, we're pretty decent cooks. Everything gets brought to temperature too, thanks to Growlithe. Trout?"

"No thanks."

"Suit yourself," Kaylee said, taking a huge and rather barbaric bite as if to prove a point. She added some "mmmmm" sounds for effect and Gav sighed.

"This is why we have no friends, sis," he said, confirming Victoria's theory about their relationship.

"No," Kaylee said, glaring at him through a full mouth. She swallowed, then waved a bent fork at him. "It's because _you _don't let us have a social life."

"Hur hur hur," Gav responded, and got trout thrown at him. Beth screamed playfully as some stray trout went her way, and soon three of the four fireside companions were laughing hard. Victoria closed her eyes and sent up a silent prayer for patience. In spite of her six-hour nap, she was still sandy-eyed, dry-mouthed and exhausted. It would be a long night.

* * *

The next morning Victoria was awoken by quiet muttering outside the tent. Her first thought was a torrent of curse words._ I fell asleep._

She sat up and gave herself a pat down from head to toes, feeling for her cell phone and Pokéballs and locating her shoes over in the corner of the tent. She took out her wallet and flipped through her marks and all her cards. Outside the quiet talk continued and she listened to it half-heartedly as she checked her credentials.

"... Wait, but Team Rocket is disband—"

"Yeah, I know, it seems that way." Kaylee was the one speaking now, her tones hushed like a conspirator. "But really, we've got a lot of proof."

"... What kind?"

Victoria frowned, pausing in her double-check and glancing over at the silhouettes outside the tent. They looked like they were sitting a little ways away, too far to hear her rustling. It was perfect eavesdropping proximity and Victoria crawled forward to get closer to the tent door and listen better.

"We've been gathering information for a long time," Kaylee said, allowing her voice to get a little louder. "Gosh, since I was really young. Gav's really the brains of the operation, he'd be able to tell you more, but, well..."

There was a pause, and Beth seemed to catch on, because she was speaking very quietly again when she said, "Oh, should you not be telling me this? I don't want you to get—"

"Naw, it's fine, just don't tell Gav," Kaylee said, a giggle in her tone. There was a moment of silence and Victoria could picture the two girls smiling and laughing quietly. A scowl came to Victoria's face as confusion took over. What the heck was going on?

"Anyway," Kaylee was continuing now, "We want to take our evidence to someone higher-up, but Gav doesn't think it's sound enough yet, and we've got to—"

Victoria wondered why they stopped speaking for a second, but a moment later she heard it too. There were footsteps coming closer through the dry grass, and for a second Victoria's pulse accelerated and wild theories sprang to her head about attackers or robbers. A second later she realized it must be Gav and felt incredibly stupid.

"Hey bro!" Kaylee said, as the footsteps became louder.

"... Hi," Gav responded, the one word communicating his instant suspicion. There was some pretty awkward silence, if Victoria could judge the quality of silence through a tent. There were sounds of Gav moving around, rearranging things or something. The girls were still quiet. After a moment the rustling sounds stopped.

"... Okay, what's up?" Gav asked.

"What?" Kaylee responded, in the classical too-fast fashion. Victoria couldn't help but smile. Beth was the same way; she couldn't lie her way out of a wet paper bag.

"What are you keeping from me?" Gav asked, with a sigh in his tone that made him sound a lot like a parent.

Victoria took this moment to emerge from the tent, and drew the attention of the three in the clearing as she did so.

"Morning!" Beth called to her.

"Hi," Victoria said, lifting her eyebrows once to her sister by way of greeting. To Kaylee she said, "So, what's this about Team Rocket?"

Silence reigned in the clearing for a good minute. Kaylee's eyes shot over to Gav, and Beth stared intently down at her feet. After a few seconds Gav spoke.

"What have you been talking about, Kaylee?"

"Aw Gav," she said, getting up and walking in a random direction, apparently just to be moving around. "What's the big deal?"

"What's the—" Gav began, putting a hand at his temple and shaking his head. To Beth and Victoria, he said, "Sorry." He turned back to Kaylee. "You and I will discuss this later."

Victoria lifted one eyebrow and tried to make eye contact with either Beth or Kaylee, but they were determinedly looking the other way. Gav made his way into the other tent and came out with a small frying pan and a metal spatula.

"Well, breakfast will be up soon."

* * *

Victoria learned two troubling things over breakfast. She sat down to receive her plate of scrambled eggs, felt a sharp pain at her hip, and discovered a very large, cell phone-shaped bruise there, as well as a tiny cut. She then found out that her cell phone had stopped working sometime during the Fearow attack, probably from being trapped between Victoria and something hard when she fell. She groaned and tossed it to the ground, where it was scooped up by Gav a second later.

"Mind if I?" he asked, already reaching into his cargo pants and pulling out a very tiny tool kit.

"Uh, knock yourself out," Victoria said, shrugging. "I'm due for a new one anyway."

"Oh," Beth said, feeling in her front pockets, back pockets and bra. "Oh, damn. Vee, my phone, I lost it in the woods."

Victoria remembered that Beth had been screaming something about a phone during their mad dash. "Ah, right. We're probably just going to have to get you a new one too, then."

Kaylee spoke up for the first time since the awkward moment that morning. "Well, we can go look for it," she suggested, and Beth grinned.

"Yeah! I'm sure it's around somewhere," Beth agreed, and Victoria felt another wave of suspicion.

"Really Beth, that thing was old. We're both due for new cells according to our contract anyway. When we get into Lavender we'll just find a K-Wireless and pick a pair up. It's fine."

"Oh, but, if yours is broken we should really try to find mine, you know... in case we need to make calls."

Victoria glanced over at her phone, which was now in many little pieces all over Gav's lap. Her eyebrows shot up as she watched him carefully winding little copper wires together near a green circuit board. "Beth, seriously. That'll just keep us here even longer. Not that you both haven't been incredibly gracious," she said, nodding to Kaylee, and then Gav, though he was absorbed in his work.

"Not that much longer," Beth said, shrugging. "Just to see if my phone is around."

"It's really no trouble," Kaylee insisted, and Victoria picked up on what was going on at last. She gave Beth her _we'll discuss this later_ face, which Beth pretended not to see.

Silence stretched on for a while as the girls ate and Gav tinkered with Victoria's phone. Kaylee occasionally nudged him in the leg with her foot and grumbled, "eat," to which he shifted away and went "uh-huh." He had it reassembled by the time breakfast was over, and there was the moment of truth as he pressed down the power button. A second later the familiar three beeps sounded through the clearing and Kaylee clapped her hands and laughed victoriously. "Way to go, bro!"

"Wow," Victoria said, accepting the phone back and staring down at it in disbelief. "Thanks."

"No problem," Gav said, picking up his neglected food and eating quickly while Kaylee started clearing away the fire and dishes.

"So, do you fix things often?" she asked, interested in these strange people in spite of herself.

"Oh, here and there," Gav said between bites. Kaylee laughed.

"He's being modest. Gav here can fix anything. Our database went down last week and he had it up and running in—"

"Database?" Victoria asked, not missing a beat. The siblings became quiet again and she definitely did not miss the glare Gav shot his sister.

"Well, our internet, hard drive and... stuff."

Beth did a double-take. "You guys have _internet?_" she asked, awed. Victoria had to admit she was impressed, too. These guys didn't look like small business owners, and you pretty much could not get internet access in Kanto unless it was for professional purposes or you visited a Pokémon Center to browse on one of their computers. She heard Initiates had a dumbed-down, censored version of a net browser on their Dexes but wasn't sure if that was true.

"I like technology," Gav said flatly, finishing his food and handing Kaylee his plate.

"So you're able to hack yourself an internet connection?" Victoria asked.

"More or less," Gav said, clearly not wanting to expand on this subject. "Kay, could you let my team out for a bit?"

Victoria didn't let the subject change go so easily. "That's pretty impressive," she said, combing her fingers through her wavy red hair to try to manage it. "What else do you do up here? Other than surf the web and fix cell phones."

Gav sighed. For some reason it satisfied Victoria a little to see that he was not cool and collected all the time. Something about being rescued by someone, given shelter and food for the night, and getting free tech support for her phone did not fill Victoria with confidence as it would most people. Instead she felt a little wary and incredibly curious.

"Gav," Kaylee teased, glancing between the two sisters. "Really. I don't think they're double-agents."

"Kay," Gav groaned again, putting his hand over his head. "You know, I really wanted to have this conversation in private, but if you insist."

"I just don't see what the big deal is!"

Victoria was now completely absorbed in listening to this unique interaction, as was Beth. Victoria at least had the presence of mind to pretend she was fiddling with her phone, but Beth was moving her gaze between Gav and Kaylee like they were two champion tennis players.

"How much did you tell Beth, anyway?" Gav asked, his annoyance very plain.

The girls exchanged a look, and Victoria finally looked up completely so she could enjoy this show more. She couldn't believe how similar Beth and Kaylee seemed to be in the "little sister" category. After a moment, Kaylee said, "Not much."

"How much?" Gav reiterated.

"Just, that, you know," Kaylee shot a look at Victoria briefly, then finished. "About how we have reason to believe the Rockets are around, and that we're gathering news stories and, evidence and things."

"'Reason to believe,'" Gav repeated, some kind of irony seeping into his tone. "And that's it?" he asked, turning his eyes to Beth now. Victoria could see Beth squirm.

"Yep," she said, averting her eyes. "We don't want to cause problems—"

"Hah," Victoria muttered. "Seems a little late for that."

Gav smiled over at her wearily, and they exchanged a commiserating look. Victoria had instantly pegged him as someone who had a tough job as an older sibling. He portrayed way too many of her own traits to overlook.

"Well," Gav said, clapping his hands and getting up to finish breaking down the fire spot, "Guess we ought to just explain what the heck is going on so your imaginations don't run off with you. I guarantee you the real story is much more boring than you think."

"Very boring, I'm sure," Victoria said sarcastically, but she wore a smile as she and the others cleaned up. Victoria not only had Gav pegged. She had her sister's motives figured out as well. Beth was milking for more time with these admittedly interesting siblings, hence her very transparent let's-all-skip-off-to-look-for-my-phone idea.

She would indulge Beth for a few more hours before they hit the road. It wasn't often the girl got to meet new people, though granted these people were not exactly normal company. Besides, though Victoria didn't want to admit it, their "very boring" story sounded like something that was sure to be anything but.


	11. Smudge on the Hem :Victoria:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 11: Smudge on the Hem

(Victoria Larson)

"Wow, so, you're a Grass-type trainer?"

"Mmhmm. Always have been."

Kaylee nodded, tilting her head to the side as she absorbed that information. A grin came to her face after a moment. "Unfortunate for you… if you couldn't tell, I'm a—"

"Fire trainer, yes," Victoria responded, a smile slowly forming. "The two Growlithe were a tip-off."

"Ah... sweet, sweet type advantage," Kaylee retorted, stretching and sighing as if this were the most satisfying thing in the world.

"I wouldn't speak so fast if I were you," Victoria said coolly, but her competitive streak was getting wider by the minute. "Yours can what, burn? Pretty limited with your status effects."

"Fah, who needs status effects when you have sheer power?"

From behind them Victoria heard Beth giggle at something Gav said. She glanced back just to make sure he wasn't flirting with her sister, but all seemed to be in order. She caught a snippet of their conversation.

"No, I'm serious! Some kid tried to tag Geodude with a gang sign. Thought it was some rock lying around, you know? Happens a lot to Geodudes. I think the kid was probably going to write 'Ryan and Nancy forever,' or something, since he had a girl with him. Nearly had a heart attack."

"What I've always wondered is, who the heck came up with the name 'Geodude'?" Beth asked, and Kaylee tuned into their conversation too.

Gav groaned. "Don't get me started! Humans are idiots, I don't know why Pokémon put up with us."

Victoria had to laugh at that. "Another stupid one is Mr. Mime. I mean, come on."

Gav stopped laughing for a moment to comment. "Who are they trying to impress?"

This conversation carried them into the woods outside Gav and Kaylee's campsite. Often times they would call over to each other with another stupid Pokémon name, and a theory as to why said Pokémon was given such an unfortunate title.

They continued through the underbrush for about an hour, stopping to drink water and sit down on fallen trees. Beth was having way too much fun looking for a lost possession, and Victoria often caught her and Kaylee off on their own, giggling about something when they should have been split up to search more efficiently.

After a while Victoria decided to revive the topic that had been avoided earlier. "So, what exactly fascinates you so much about Team Rocket? I promise I won't spill the beans if they catch me," she added, catching Kaylee's sidelong glare at Gav.

Beth had been remarkably quiet about this subject, curious though she must have been. Now that it had been brought up, though, the floodgates were open. "What do you guys do? It sounds like some kind of ultra-top secret spy stuff."

Kaylee laughed, and Gav chuckled low in his throat. "To answer your question," Gav said to Victoria, "we've had our lives interfered with. That's part of the reason we have…" he paused and gave Kaylee a raised-eyebrow, "'reason to believe,' as my sister puts it." Victoria took note of the awkward and vague wording, but did not interrupt.

"Well, we don't like the way the Rockets are allowed complete reign over basically anything," Kaylee added, which caused Victoria's brow to furrow. This time she did open her mouth to say something, but Kaylee was going on. "The stuff we do is mostly information gathering, but if we can we'll try to hang around and pick up on some conversations—espionage stuff, like you said."

Beth looked pleased and terribly interested, but Victoria now had at least five questions swimming around in her head. Gav seemed to see this and put a hand up to stop Kaylee's deluge.

"What exactly did they do? The 'interfering', I mean," Victoria began. She struggled to keep her questions in chronological order.

There was silence again, and she immediately realized she'd stumbled into an off-limits topic. "We've had trouble with them in the past," Gav said simply. Beth opened her mouth to ask a question, but Victoria touched her hand subtly. Beth stopped.

Victoria moved on to her next one. "Kaylee, you said… I believe it was you said, 'Rockets are allowed complete reign'... can you elaborate?"

Kaylee seemed confused. "What do you mean?"

Victoria frowned even more, but Gav seemed to see the miscommunication and stepped in to explain.

"Kay, remember, it's not so clear for everyone." Victoria's eyebrow went up again at this, skepticism rolling off of her in waves. He continued to Victoria. "There aren't any reports about Rocket activity on the news, no suspicious activities are linked to them…"

Victoria could not help it. "Because they've been disbanded."

"At the risk of sounding melodramatic," Gav said, adding a little flare and humor to the last part, "that's what they _want_ you to think."

Again, Victoria could not help it. She laughed once, and Kaylee shot her a quick, venomous look. Victoria stopped at once; she was genuinely interested and didn't want to offend. "Who is 'they'?" she asked, her other questions totally gone now in light of this thread.

Kaylee took over again. "The police, we assume. Not sure what they have to gain from keeping this all quiet. It could be to stop the hysteria that might break out, or certain members of the police force could be dirty..."

Gav groaned at her. "That's… one way to put it, yes. Anyway, getting back on topic, just because you don't hear about it in the media doesn't mean it's not happening."

"Yes, but, what proof do you have that… whatever incidents you find are Rocket-related?" Victoria pried.

"We're giving you the cliff notes, not our annual report," Gav mentioned dryly, and Victoria backed off a bit. She didn't want to raise his hackles any more.

Beth took her time to speak up now. "What do you guys do, exactly?" she asked Kaylee. "I mean, what sort of information do you gather, and how do you decide if something is worth your time?" Victoria momentarily smiled, since this had been one of her own forgotten questions.

Gav seemed finished with his part of the story, and Kaylee gladly expounded. "First, we keep our ears peeled for any strange happenings in the news," she said, kicking at a rock. "Though y'know, sometimes we gotta just go by word-of-mouth since like Gav says, not everything gets reported. Then, we figure out if the Rockets are involved—"

"And how often is that?" Victoria couldn't help interjecting, realizing it sounded sarcastic a little too late.

Kaylee shot her another look. "Actually, a lot."

Beth grabbed hold of Victoria's arm below the elbow, as if to say, _don't piss these people off! I want to hear the rest._ Grudgingly, Victoria renewed her resolve to filter her commentary… a little.

"Anyway," Kaylee continued, already wrapped back up in her retelling. "Then we plot the place where the activity seems to be—and sometimes, you know, it's really obvious. I mean, it's a miracle nobody else seems to notice—or maybe they're just afraid of bringing them to the police, beats me, I mean, it's their civic duty after all, but then again, the police are kinda useless, so I can understand—"

"Tangent," Gav commented mildly.

"Oh, sorry," Kaylee said, clearing her throat. "Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah," she paused to take a gulp of water. "Well, after that we stake out the area, blend in, stay at the Center or some other hostel in the area, take notes, videos, photos… eavesdrop if we can. Now, that's the hard part, cause even though the Rockets have this reputation for being incredibly stupid, they're really, really hopped up on security if it's a big enough heist… not that we've been lucky enough to stumble on any really big heists, but, well."

"But how much footage and notes do you have?" Beth asked. Victoria recalled their brown accordion file.

"A lot," Kaylee said, a self-satisfied smile coming to her face.

"So… so, why don't you take it to the police?" Beth asked, but Victoria thought she already knew the answer.

Sure enough, Gav spoke up to Beth, his frustration audible in a subtle undertone. "Unfortunately Kay's underage, and I only just made sixteen, so we're not exactly what you'd call credible. We need a lot more than we have if we want to come forward."

"Plus, there's the fact that the police might be dirty," Kaylee said, a sigh in her tone. It was the first time Victoria could recall seeing her look tired.

"Aww, that bites! Just 'cause you're kids no one would listen to you?" Beth asked with genuine remorse.

"Yeah, pretty much." Kaylee seemed to be winded from her explanations and fell silent.

Victoria decided it was safe to speak up. "It sounds like a lot of what you're doing might upset some people, if they were to find out."

"Well… well, _yeah_," Kaylee spoke up again, her apparent fatigue not enough to stop her. "It's TR, they're bad news."

"I more so meant the eavesdropping, photographing of potentially confidential material… this sounds borderline illegal."

"Well," Gav said, "sometimes you have to bend the rules."

He could not have said anything to irritate Victoria more. It was a sudden, instinctual reaction to a sentiment that had always been a trigger for her. She felt her jaw set and her facial muscles tighten into an unreadable, stony expression. At first Beth didn't seem to see what was wrong, but a moment later a light went on in her sister's eyes. She tried to meet Victoria's gaze, looking worried, but Victoria merely stared straight ahead. "So, let me get this straight—"

Before she could grill them any further, there was a sound quite close to them, and all four tensed up. Gav stood and put a hand at his Pokémon belt, as did Victoria. When nothing else happened for a moment, the group relaxed marginally.

"We should head back to camp and check on things," Gav said, glancing at his watch. "Been gone almost an hour. I know we left Growlithe and Cubone there, but, just in case."

There was general consent from the group, and they started back. Victoria had a strong suspicion that Beth had completely forgotten that they were supposedly out there to look for her phone.

"Lots of wilds around here?" Victoria asked, the Fearow assault still fresh in her mind. She struggled to keep her temper in check from Gav's last comment. Reasonably, there was no way he could have known how much it would upset her. "We saw virtually none on the way up, but maybe they all hide out around you."

Gav smiled sadly. "Sorry to tell you, but TR's scared off most of the ones that used to live around this area… except for insane Fearow, apparently. All around Saffron's become somewhat of a dead-zone for wilds."

Victoria couldn't help a mild snort. "You aren't trying to tell me we're looking at round two of the Silph Co. fiasco?"

She'd meant it as a joke, but Kaylee chose that moment to speak up. "Actually, Gav and I make it our business to know as much about the inner workings of TR as possible, and we're starting to think—"

"Hey hey, whoa," Gav cut in, lifting a hand to his sister. "Remember, no annual report."

Kaylee gave him a blank stare. "I thought we established that these two weren't double-agents."

He smiled. "What if they catch them and torture them for information? You have to be paranoid."

Victoria found it sad that she was starting to lose count of the creepy, inappropriate jokes. "_Ugh._"

* * *

They decided to eat together since breakfast had been quite a while ago, and the conversation turned back to Pokémon as Victoria and Beth let their teams out to get some fresh air. The four watched as their Pokémon intermingled in a generally peaceful way, though Victoria's Grass-types did seem to give Kaylee's Fire-types a good amount of space. Gav's Rock-types also seemed to keep their distance from Beth's Water-types.

"I wonder how usual this is," Beth asked aloud as she nibbled at her bread and fish. "Four teens with a type preference."

"Kind of common, actually," Gav said. "Though from what I hear, most young trainers like to think of themselves as Psychic-type, or Dragon-type trainers." The others laughed at this.

"Aw," Victoria said. "Our type preferences are nerdy."

"I resemble that remark," Gav joked, and Kaylee rolled her eyes at him.

They ate in silence for a little while longer, and it was almost the end of the meal when Gav spoke up again.

"So, do you want us to show you the way out of the forest and to the Lavender path?"

Victoria shook her head, passing her dish to Kaylee, who was gathering them again. Victoria had been somewhat wrapped up in the conversation, the hunt for Beth's phone, and her curiosity about the strange hobby these two people had. Now though, she remembered that they had been in their company for almost a full 24 hours. Getting to her feet and brushing off her jean capris, she said, "I don't think so. We can handle ourselves."

Gav looked uncertain. "Well, I don't want you guys trying to figure out how to get through here on your own. It's a real hard path; even I get lost sometimes, and Kay and I have been here for a few months now."

Victoria was mildly impressed. How ruggedly charming. For two nut balls, the siblings were interesting. "If you like," she said flippantly, and a big grin came to Beth's face as she exchanged a look with Kaylee.

Victoria had to admit, she was getting a bit tired of playing the bad guy to Beth's seemingly constant need to impose on these people. They had already been rescued, fed, sheltered, had their never-ending nosy questions endured, and been given one free cell phone repair. There was not much more they could do to overstay their welcome save for trashing the camp.

Plus, there was the undeniable fact that these siblings were off chasing a team of criminals who, as far as Victoria was concerned, still did not exist. She knew there was always an outside chance that some people still believed themselves Rocket members, but the full-scale, public criminal organization was long-dead. Now only petty crimes involving Pokémon were common, from cruel versions of Pokémon battles to selling rares for exorbitant fees. Victoria kept up with the news and followed the police busts on activity like this.

It wasn't that she thought Gav and Kaylee were insane and dangerous, but they definitely had an eccentric past-time that Victoria wanted no part of. The longer they stayed, too, the more Beth would get attached. It was a miracle her sister wasn't running away into their tent and zipping herself in, actually. With only her very serious, all-business older sister for company, Beth surely must have been losing her mind these past six months. Victoria felt a stab of guilt. Perhaps she would take Beth out to a movie this week, to try to make it up to her. Sometimes Victoria drove them too hard, though she never heard a complaint.

The gang gathered Beth and Victoria's things, did a double-check of the area, then started off into the underbrush. Gav and Victoria made small talk with each other, since their sisters were hanging back and whispering nonstop. They talked about the weather, the woes of being the eldest sibling, what had inspired them to start training—basically all of the inane chit-chat they could think of. Gav suddenly frowned and reached into his pocket after they had walked a short distance.

"Call me. I'm 323-449. Area code 2."

Victoria frowned. "Pardon?"

"It just occurred to me that we never tested to see if your phone really still works or not. It turns on, but…" he trailed off, and Victoria nodded, understanding.

"Alright, what was that again?" he repeated it and she punched it into her cell. While she waited for it to ring, she said, "You still have a six-digit phone number? You know they've introduced a new digit for a ton of the new ones in the last, oh, ten years?"

Gav smiled at her as he held his phone up to his head. "Yes, I'm aware. Pewter has a ton of old numbers."

"Pewter?" Victoria asked, as the phone finally rang. Gav picked up and they carried on their conversation connected via phone. "Is that where you two are from?"

Gav paused. "Yeah," he said finally, then hung up. "Okay, I'm going to call you now." He hit a button twice and waited.

"Ah," Victoria said. "Beth and I are from Celadon. It's taking a while to ring."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"That we're from Celadon?" Victoria teased.

"No, that your phone—" Gav looked up and saw Victoria's smile, then grinned himself. "Ah, funny funny." They connected again on the phone line, then hung up. "Well, good. All seems in order. You may want to switch that out for your new one ASAP, though."

They climbed that way in silence for a while. Victoria kept catching snatches of conversation from Kaylee and Beth behind them. "Cute," and "yeah!" were common words, as well as "good," and "right!" It seemed like a positive little girl talk session, and Victoria wondered what they were discussing, vaguely.

Eventually they had climbed up and over the massive, brambly hill and had come to a rather nice patch of grass. Relieved, Victoria made a move to sit down, only to be caught halfway by Gav's arms and pulled back to her feet. Alarmed and confused, she pulled away from him—and saw the nest of Weedles peering obtrusively out from a patch of underbrush. Embarrassed, she muttered a hushed, "thanks," before Kaylee's raucous laughter interrupted them.

"Ew, politics. No, I have zero political convictions. Gav here though, Gav's a nut about politics," Kaylee explained, jabbing a thumb at her brother. "He's always going on and on. He doesn't seem to realize I don't care."

Gav snorted and folded his arms. "I don't know how you and I share the same DNA sometimes," he retorted, rolling his eyes and moving to squat down away from the Weedle nest. "I can't believe you don't care about things that are so relevant to… well, _everything._"

Victoria's interest was immediately piqued. "So, which way do you lean?" she asked, also scooting away from the nest to find a safer patch of grass.

Gav let out a breath of air, and paused a moment before answering. "That's always a tough one. I have flavors of both Constitutionalism and Reformism. You'd have to ask me about the issue."

Victoria nodded. "I'm the same. So, may I ask you about issues?" she asked, a small, borderline sly smile coming to her face.

Gav mirrored the smile. "Fire away."

Beth and Kaylee, meanwhile, exchanged a look and sighed, then moved a little ways away to discuss other things.

"Okay," Victoria said, shifting her weight to get more comfortable. "How do you feel about the New Trainer Initiative?"

"Waste of money," Gav answered immediately. Victoria's grin broadened, but she hid it after a second.

"Interesting," she said. "How so?"

"Well," Gav said, lifting his eyebrow as his smile grew. He'd apparently seen her slip-up. "The way I see it is, we ought to still encourage training journeys, but the way it is now, we're funneling hundreds of thousands of marks each year into the Pokédex technology, which we give away for free… then there are the hundreds of people employed in each town or city to make sure new trainers don't wander too far away. They're getting paid, and it's coming out of our pockets come tax time."

It was like music to Victoria's ears. She had had enough with playing aloof and joined in. "Plus, they get free cash to buy food and necessities, which is alright, to an extent. But then there's the god-awful system of giving them extra money to _gamble _with…"

"Right!" Gav picked up, shaking his head. "That's a _wonderful_ thing to teach kids."

Their sisters were now glancing over at them furtively from their own conversation a little ways away, occasionally smiling innocently when one of their siblings caught them doing so. Victoria frowned slightly, but Gav was continuing.

"Now, if I may ask you one, Representative Victoria," he said, mimicking a microphone. "How do you feel about the funding of Pokémon Centers?"

Victoria laughed out loud, derisively. "Well, sir, I'd say, '_what_ funding?'" Gav's smile grew again as she continued. "Why our government is not footing the entire cost, or at least a vast bulk of the cost of the upkeep of the Centers is beyond me. Not funding them is like not funding—"

"—Not funding hospitals."

"—hospitals. Exactly!"

It had been a while since someone had finished her sentence. Gav and Victoria both looked over at Beth and Kaylee as the two girls had burst out into giggles.

Victoria and Gav tapered off their discussion after a while, but found that they didn't have any differing views on any of the subjects they'd covered so far. Victoria was impressed now, in all honesty. This guy did seem to have it all. He was brave, as was evidenced by him and Kaylee rushing into a pack of Fearow to help two strangers. He was smart, as she had just found out, and was generally a pretty nice person. The only thing that didn't make sense was this bizarre Team Rocket project. It was a little smudge on the hem of a pristine suit.

Victoria weighed her options carefully, then decided to speak up on this issue one more time.

"So… when you do have enough evidence, for your project—" she saw the way he instantly tensed up, and felt a little bad. "... You're going to take it to the police, and let them take matters from there, right?"

Kaylee piped in, a teasing grin on her face. "Awww. Are you worried about us?"

Victoria gave her a withering look. "I _would _feel a little bad if you guys got wrapped up in something that _is _way over your heads."

Gav looked as if he didn't know where this was going. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, that's the plan, ideally."

"Ideally?"

"Well…" Gav frowned even more as the group got up in an unspoken agreement to keep walking. "The police can't always be helpful but, we hope in this case, they will."

"I see," Victoria said, itching to know more, but unwilling to pry more than she already had. It seemed to her that these siblings had some kind of reason to distrust the police, but hell. Who knew? Maybe it was just a bias they had.

"That won't be for a while, of course," Gav muttered, seeming tired just thinking about it.

"How much do you need, exactly?" Victoria asked, at the same moment Beth asked, "How long have you been gathering information, though?"

Gav chuckled softly at their overlapping questions. "We've been doing this for years. But it's not enough, not yet." At Victoria's look, he elaborated. "TR is quite savvy with their information—they'd know the second we reported them, and would clear out of there faster than you can say 'rare candy.'" He undid his ponytail and redid it as they walked. "The police would call us lying brats and send us away. Our record would be marked and they'd never believe us again."

Victoria was astounded. "Well, alright, that's one possible outcome. But, thinking that's the _only _one… that's pretty presumptuous, don't you think?"

Gav only smiled. "You can never assume too much with Team Rocket."

Victoria wasn't sure why, but she lost the will to continue picking apart their logic from that smile alone. She couldn't place it, and she almost thought it might have been her imagination, but she could have sworn she saw a flash of old, bone-deep sorrow in his eyes… if even for a second. However, it was gone the moment she blinked, leaving her feeling suddenly foolish.

"How much longer?" Victoria asked. She realized that was vague a second later, and elaborated. "Until we reach the road."

"Not too bad!" Kaylee said, though her normally buoyant cheerfulness seemed a little forced right now. "Only another two or so hours."

Beth and Victoria groaned in unison.

* * *

_Author's Note: As you can see, I tried to go Poké-political here. I don't plan to explain in great detail my take on the political scene of Kanto, but it might come up from time to time. I'll do my best to make it simple and clear. _


	12. Work Hard at This One :Jason:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 12: Work Hard at This One

(Jason Fremont)

On their way up to the Gym five days later, Jason and the others bore witness to two Geodudes escorting trainers back to the Center. Gina visibly grimaced at the sight, but it only served to excite Jason more. There was a small line outside the doors, and the group of four staked out a place in line to wait.

"I sometimes regret not getting a starter and going on a journey," Orion said as he watched a defeated youngster rush past them with a Geodude in tow.

"How many Geodudes do you think he _has_?" Jason asked, a bit baffled. "Here I was thinking the Gym Leaders only had one of each kind of Pokémon."

"That would make their job quite difficult during rush seasons," Zahlia commented reasonably. "Even if they keep a large supply of Revive and Potion, their teams would still tire out quickly."

"Makes sense," Orion agreed. Gina was very quiet throughout these proceedings. Jason nudged her.

"Nervous?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said with surprising candidness. "You?"

"Oh, yeah," Jason said, grinning. "But, excited-nervous."

"That's good. I'm more of the vomit-nervous."

Jason scooted away. "Give me warning so I can run away, at least."

"Har har."

It was about a half an hour later when it was their turn. Armstrong glanced up as the Gym doors opened. At least, Jason assumed this must be Armstrong. Gina had described him as a huge man, and this guy fit the bill—from what Jason could see of him, that was. The lights were all off, which he found odd, but Gina walked calmly over to a deceptively normal looking rock, and, after opening it, proceeded to flip a series of switches that quickly bathed the Gym in light. Jason gaped at Gina before Armstrong laughed aloud and said, "You remember that, I see."

"Yeah," Gina said to Armstrong, shifting somewhat uncomfortably and observing the dirt on her sneakers.

"Dude," Jason said quietly to Gina. "Major cool points. Do you want to go first?" She quickly shook her head and took a step back, motioning for him to go ahead.

"You sure?" he called, and Gina nodded vehemently, turning away and twisting a lock of brown hair around her finger. Jason shrugged. "All right then, if you don't want to…" he took a deep breath against the nerves and struggled to project an air of absolute confidence. "I'd like to challenge you first, sir!"

Armstrong nodded to him, wiggling his mustache back and forth like he was chewing gum. "Sure, son. One on one, or the Gym's usual?"

Jason frowned. "Um... one-on-one, I guess. I've got a level twelve B—"

Armstrong lifted his large hand to silence him. "No need to tell me what it is. Just need to know the level." With that the man sauntered off to the opposite end of the Gym and began rifling in what Jason could have sworn was an old shoebox. Jason exchanged an incredulous look with Gina, and she mouthed, "I know, right?" back to him.

Jason moved forward to stand somewhat awkwardly at the opposite side of the battlefield a second before Armstrong called, "you ready?" his voice echoing in the large, empty space.

"Yeah," Jason called, and cringed at the slight waver. He cleared his throat and, in a much deeper voice, repeated, "Yeah, I'm ready when you are."

"Alright then!"

A beam of red light flashed out from Armstrong's side of the Gym a split second before Jason jammed the button on his Pokéball as well.

The shape of Armstrong's Pokémon was absolutely enormous. Jason felt his heart sink slightly even as a surge of excited adrenaline coursed through his body. In a matter of seconds a young Onix had materialized, lifting its shining head from the ground and regarding Jason's (pathetically small by comparison) Bulbasaur. His Pokémon glanced back at him, fuchsia eyes wide with a look that unmistakably said, _what are you_, _insane_? Jason pointed ahead at the opponent and muttered quietly, "Dude, you'd better work hard at this one, okay?"

"Alright, Onix." Armstrong was already beginning and Jason swore colorfully in his head as he bit his tongue to keep from doing it out loud. "Let's try a little Screech attack!"

Onix straightened up even more, uncoiling its massive neck and emitted a noise that Jason was sure could wake the dead. Clapping his hands fiercely over his ears, Jason watched as Bulbasaur staggered on the spot, burying his head under his front legs and shuddering. It seemed like eons before the sound ceased. Even after it was done Jason could hear the ringing in his head.

Amazingly, Armstrong hadn't covered his ears once throughout this ordeal. In fact, the man seemed bored. Jason could barely make out his sentence: "Your turn, lad."

"Right… right," Jason said, struggling to keep it together. "Bulbasaur, Leech Seed him!"

For the first time in Bulbasaur's life he obeyed his command quickly and fiercely. There was no time for Poké-Yoga as a multitude of small, sticky-looking brown seeds exploded out of his leafy back. They were projected out like mini-rockets, and while most missed target, a few stuck to Onix like strange spitballs. Almost instantly, small, neon green vines erupted from them and began to wind their way all around the rock snake's body. One tangled itself in the long spine protruding from its head and draped down over its left eye. Onix now looked like it had a very fashionable new hairstyle. It was almost laughable, except for the fact that it was now Armstrong's turn.

"Alright, Onix. Use your Bide attack."

At first Jason's face split open into a wide grin. Three turns of free attacks! Things were looking up. "Okay, Bulbasaur!" he shouted as Onix coiled itself up and regarded the smaller Pokémon before it with steady, dark eyes. "Vine Whip!"

Once again Bulbasaur responded quickly. He shot out his vines, blistering them over Onix's flank with sharp, cracking explosions like fireworks going off in a tin can. The effect was good enough, but it probably hadn't taken out a third of Onix's health. Jason's turn ended, and Onix's gaze only seemed to intensify as the Leech Seed glowed all over its body and transferred floating bits of effervescent pollen over to Bulbasaur, who was now looking wary.

_Crap, _Jason thought. He had to get this thing to faint in the next two turns, or things would be decidedly grim. He struggled for a moment to think of some other offensive move that might do better, but Razor Leaf would be hazardous at best, as Bulbasaur was not very good at it, and Tackle would just be sad. Jason groaned softly under his breath and said, "Vine Whip, again!"

This time Jason could see a cringe of pain as the vines struck close to one of Onix' silently watching eyes. He had no way of knowing if he was doing a good enough job here, and his pride didn't want to allow him to check his Dex. He looked over at Bulbasaur though, who was crouched low, waiting for his final attack order before the Bide would end. Jason owed it to him to at least know where he stood in this battle. He dug in his pocket and drew out his Pokédex, and, glancing through the screen, saw that Onix still had over a third of its health.

Now he had a decision to make. Armstrong stood patiently, but was definitely rolling his eyes a little at Jason's hesitation. The Leech Seed glowed again and he felt frustrated watching the perfectly good healing pollen meet with Bulbasaur's still-fit body.

This was not good. Unless he could sufficiently weaken Onix to the point of K.O. in this next turn, the battle could well be over in one move.

However, if he stopped it would only prolong the fight, and he might not have another opportunity like this. Jason took a deep breath and said, "One more time, Bulbasaur!"

Bulbasaur really seemed to put everything he had into this final attack. The fierce sound of vine hitting rock echoed deafeningly and Jason had a brief moment to wonder how much hearing damage they'd sustain after this battle. That thought was very short-lived though, and his stomach sank through his shoes into the floor at the "neep neep neep" sound from his Dex; Onix was in critical health, but it had not been defeated.

Onix unraveled itself. It seemed scuffed up as all hell, tired and worn, but all of that seemed to vanish compared to the ferocity with which it regarded Bulbasaur. Jason barely had time to shout rather unnecessarily, "Look out!"

Onix shot forward without warning, releasing a burning torrent of red and gold energy as it did so. Jason could barely comprehend it; it was blinding, and a blast of heat rolled over him as if an enormous oven had just been opened. Bulbasaur leaped to avoid it, but it glanced off him and sent the small Pokémon flying back. Jason jumped up—he hadn't realized he'd fallen down—and ran over to Bulbasaur.

The Dex in his pocket was now making a point-counterpoint sound of "neep neep neep" and "boop boop boop." Both Onix and Bulbasaur were in critical health. Bulbasaur struggled to his feet and Jason somehow got the feeling that he was embarrassed at his low health. He wasn't making eye contact with him, instead staring ahead with a strange expression, standing stubbornly on shaky legs. Jason realized that he, too, was shaking. He had never imagined a Gym battle would be this traumatic up close and personal.

"You're doing great," he muttered to Bulbasaur, hesitating for a second before resting his hand against his leafy seed. "But I can forfeit any time."

Bulbasaur stared ahead for a moment, then slowly turned to him. After a second he frowned and tilted his head to the side. To Jason the expression read, _you're kidding me, right?_

Jason shook his head. Even though it was the last thing Jason the future-Master wanted, Jason the trainer was a different story. "Any time. Dead serious."

A very subtle change seemed to come over Bulbasaur's face. He studied Jason very closely for a while. Then, at last, he snorted at Onix and faced forward, stretching his hamstrings first, then leaning forward to stretch his thighs. Jason burst into laughter.

"Are you ever going to attack?" Armstrong interrupted, as Bulbasaur rolled his neck. "I don't have all night."

Bulbasaur sighed and kicked some dirt up, prepared now for the final attack. "Right!" Jason called happily, every ounce of his pizzazz back in full. "You know what to do, buddy!"

Bulbasaur did not immediately attack. For a second Jason was confused beyond belief, but he saw why a second later. Onix had been hunkered low, ready, but at the pause it shifted just a little to get a better look. In that one second of curiosity, Bulbasaur struck. The vines shot out of his seed and Bulbasaur actually charged forward like a small turquoise Rambo. The attack seemed to get louder with each strike, and Onix, already weak from the Leech Seed and the endurance of the Bide attack, went down hard. It struck the ground, and this sound was the most deafening of all.

There was a moment of silence as Bulbasaur's vines hovered motionless in midair and the enormous cloud of dust settled around the Gym. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Armstrong gruffly said, "Good job, lad," and recalled Onix quite suddenly in a flash of red.

The sudden absence of the rock snake in the Gym finally hit Jason, and he unfroze. "… We...?" he asked slowly as Bulbasaur, uncharacteristically worked up, crowed in triumph and sent a shower of pollen into the air. The glittering stuff floated down around them and Jason finally comprehend his victory. Armstrong was walking over to him, making slow progress across the Gym floor. Jason must have had a very dumbfounded look on his face, because Armstrong looked terribly amused as he shoved a hand in the pocket of his vest and extracted a small badge.

It finally clicked then. "_Holy hell!_"

Gina dashed over to him, grinning, and Jason turned to her for an unnecessarily huge hug-and-spin. Orion whooped and pumped his fist in the air, heading over to the two of them. Jason released Gina, who was laughing and staggering a bit, and jumped at Orion, who gave him a rib-cracking hug as well. Jason saw Zahlia's smile from across the room and she mouthed the words, "Good job," at him.

The celebration was not complete, though. Jason wiggled free from his brother and tackled Bulbasaur, who had drawn nearer to them. Bulbasaur's vines shot out and latched onto Jason's arms as a terrified look came across his starter's face. Jason tossed Bulbasaur and caught him, then dragged Gina and Orion into a three-way hug (or, four-way, as Bulbasaur was trapped in the embrace.)

They carried on like that for a while until it became apparent that Armstrong was waiting. Jason could not sit still even as he made his way to the sidelines, staring down at his first badge.

Gina was now up to bat, and Jason noticed through his victorious haze how uncomfortable she looked. "Same old?" Armstrong called, as if they had Pokémon battles every day after watching the game. He was rifling through the shoebox again.

"Level thirteen," Gina said, barely above a mutter, and Armstrong, who hadn't heard her over the clattering of metal on metal, grunted "Eh?" before Gina reiterated her response, louder.

"Go Gina!" Jason hollered, and he could see her cringe at the attention.

The two prepared to face off and Jason frowned as he saw Armstrong's selection. It was the Geodude again, and Gina had a strange, unreadable expression on her face as she stared at it. Armstrong laughed, seeming to correctly interpret her look.

"I'm not going easy on you. Geodude's a bit tougher than the Onix your friend here just fought."

This seemed to settle Gina down and she nodded sheepishly, as if to deny she had been offended a moment ago. "Ready," she said. For some reason Armstrong seemed amused by this.

"Alright then! Geodude, Tackle!"

Jason held his breath as the Rock-type sailed through the air at Charmander, who dived out of the way, avoiding most of the damage but getting clipped on his hindquarters. Staggering a little from the blow before righting himself, Charmander hissed fiercely at Geodude, who picked itself up and returned to its fixed spot on Armstrong's end of the Gym.

"Not bad," Armstrong said, nodding. "Your Pokémon's gotten better already."

"Ember!" Gina shouted, apparently too worked up to carry on a friendly conversation with her opponent. Jason let out a sharp breath. He had never seen this particular move in combat before.

Charmander's new Ember attack exploded from the impossibly small Pokémon, showering Geodude with sparks and small flames of smoldering heat. Gina wiped sweat from her brow. The heat scorched a nearby rock, causing mirage ripples to waver through the air around them. Jason squinted and struggled to see through the shimmering air to assess Geodude.

Much to his surprise, the Ember attack had had a pretty good effect. The Rock-type was looking a bit worse for the wear, scuffed around the edges and sporting a very large, charred black patch across its left arm. It appeared to be wincing, if a boulder's facial expression was anything to go by.

"It looks like it's been burned," Orion muttered to Zahlia just as Jason came to the conclusion himself. "That's good for Gina! Hopefully with it wearing out quicker this won't be so difficult."

Zahlia nodded absently, but Jason's eyes were fixed on Gina's face. She didn't seem to be as relieved as Orion was. In fact, she was looking rather pale, not taking this as a sign to relax in the slightest. This made Jason nervous, and not for the first time that week he wondered how her last battle against Armstrong had gone.

Armstrong was speaking. "Alright, Geodude. Let's finish this—Body Slam!"

Jason cringed as Geodude shot forward and landed with a sickening thud across Charmander's flank. The Fire-type hadn't had time to dodge. Gina uttered a strangled sound of dismay and frustration, rifling in her pack for a Potion bottle. Geodude lifted off of Charmander, but as it turned to leave it staggered in mid-air. It looked as though Geodude had tripped on absolutely nothing, and Jason knew it was the burn acting up. He'd been fighting the urge to bust out his Dex for the whole battle, but couldn't help it any longer. He peered through the viewfinder and saw that Geodude still had about two-thirds of its health.

Charmander, on the other hand… well, it didn't take a PokéManiac to see that Charmander was barely clinging to consciousness. This was what was known as Death Row to most trainers—the Potion-wasting, torturous last rounds of a mismatched battle, where the losing trainer spent all their turns providing healing items to a Pokémon only to have that Pokémon shot down to within the red zone again the very next turn. Death Row ended one of two ways: when the Pokémon's trainer ran out of Potion and decided to just give up, or when a surprising turn of the tables occurred, which was rare.

Gina got up from a still woozy but mostly healed Charmander and regarded Armstrong evenly, but with no small amount of dread on her face. Armstrong was staring at Geodude, however. Jason wondered if the man bothered to carry extra Burn Heals. If he did, he should be using one now, because each passing moment Geodude was looking more and more disgruntled and distracted by its charred arm. Armstrong returned his attentions to Gina and Charmander and said, "How's about a Tackle Attack, Geodude!"

Geodude shot forward; Charmander poised to leap out of the way. Yet, amazingly, Geodude stumbled yet again and hit the ground a few inches from the orange lizard. It had missed.

Charmander's expression was something like _holy crap that was close, _and Gina appeared to breathe again. She didn't waste any time, though. The next order of "Ember!" was shouted, and Charmander executed the attack without hesitation. The Fire-type seemed tired though, and even though Geodude was in closer quarters to the flames it was able to shrug off the brunt of the assault.

Armstrong fumed. "All right, get over here you!" he barked to Geodude, who obediently hovered over to the man. Armstrong fished around in one of the pockets of his enormous cargo pants and removed what appeared to be a dusty, slightly cracked, half-empty bottle of Burn Heal. Jason's mouth fell open. So he'd had a Burn Heal all along and had merely decided it wasn't worth taking the precaution?

It was Gina's turn now, and predictably the girl called out the order of "Ember!" again. Jason wasn't expecting Geodude to sustain a second damaging, health-depleting status effect; that would have been too much to ask for. However, this second attack seemed to cause the Rock-type considerably more damage than it had before, probably because the other Pokémon was weakening. Jason fidgeted in place on the sidelines. Gina might actually have a chance to turn this battle in her favor.

The second he thought it Jason wanted to take it back. It was as though he'd jinxed the match. Geodude's Tackle met target this time, and Charmander was sent flying through the air. He landed on his back with a sickening crack against a brittle rock that crumbled from the impact. Gina swore under her breath. Armstrong was looking confident.

Then something happened between Gina and Charmander. Gina had been rifling in her pack (for a Potion, no doubt) when Charmander shakily pulled himself to his feet once more, shook out his head and shot Gina a venomous glare. The girl was heading over to him with a blue bottle, but she caught sight of Charmander's look and paused. Charmander snorted steam as if scorning Gina's Potion and turned his back on her, fixing his teal eyes instead on his opponent.

"Charmander," Gina began, muttering so that Armstrong wouldn't be able to hear her from across the Gym. Jason could barely make out what she was saying. "… got to be kidding me. You need to heal up!"

Charmander snorted yet again, and Gina hissed, "Don't you give me that! I'm not making the same mistake twice."

Jason could have sworn that the glowing flame at the tip of his tail flickered, sputtered, and grew higher for a moment. The trainer and Pokémon engaged in a silent battle of wills until Armstrong grew impatient.

"Come on, girl," he bellowed to her over the dusty, charred Gym floor. "What's taking so long? It's your turn!"

Gina growled at Charmander to get over here _now_, but Charmander abruptly turned his back on Gina once again. The Geodude was looking grouchy and tired. "Charmander," Gina hissed. "Don't you dare… if you think I'm giving you an attack order, you're cr—"

The second it heard the word "attack" Charmander let loose a torrent of burning, quick-flying little flames, a considerable amount more than his first attacks. Geodude writhed under the onslaught, attempting first to move out of the way and then to shield itself with its rocky arms. Gina was shouting something Jason couldn't hear, Charmander's attack was deafening and the temperature of the room was rising steadily. Then suddenly one noise rose above all the others.

_Thud_.

It took Jason a little while to realize what that had been. He leaped to his feet and struggled to see through the smoke until he noticed that Geodude was no longer floating in midair… and that there was a new, slightly different looking boulder lying face-down on the ground.

Had she done it?

Gina's thoughts seemed to mirror his. For a long moment every eye was trained on Geodude, waiting to see if the Pokémon was really down for the count. Collective breaths were held and Jason caught movement out of the corner of his eye as Orion and Zahlia moved forward to stand beside him and get a better look.

And then—Jason's heart sank into his stomach—Geodude stirred. Gina seemed to deflate and Charmander stiffened, the not-yet-grown spines on his back shooting straight up in shock, much like the hackles of a dog. The living boulder pushed itself up with two chiseled arms, began to hover towards Charmander… and abruptly collapsed in a heap, upsetting a flurry of dust.

There was a small sound from Gina's Pokédex.

It was Jason who broke the silence seconds later. He let out a strangled whoop that quickly mutated into an all-out cheer as he punched the air fiercely. Orion lifted a shaking hand to his pale brow to mop the sweat there, a wan smile of intense relief on his face. Gina collapsed to her knees in the dust, staring blankly ahead as Charmander first sauntered, then sheepishly edged over to her. After a pause he nudged her hand with his nose.

This seemed to snap Gina out of her reverie. She only stared blankly at her companion for a moment before scooping the creature up in a sudden hug.

"You disobedient _ass_," Gina said, the end of her sentence turning into an exhausted, half-delirious laugh. Charmander evidently had wanted praise, but not this much physical affection. As Gina rubbed his head he struggled to get out of the embrace.

Armstrong made his way over to them, stopping only to recall Geodude. He paused while Gina went through her gradually growing hysterics. Her laughter increased until she was shaking her head and covering her face with one hand in a vain attempt to get a hold of herself. Jason danced around on the balls of his feet, not wanting to interrupt the delivery of the badge but itching to go over and congratulate them.

Once Armstrong had the young trainer's attention again, he commented lightly, "Well, good job girl! You more than earned this." He tossed her a shining slab of pewter grey, which she caught in one outstretched hand. "Congratulations on being one of the first Charmander trainers to beat me this year!"

Gina muttered something incomprehensible, which Jason did not hear since he was now busy shouting. Orion laughed aloud suddenly and Jason, alerted to his brother's presence, threw himself at him and began pounding him on the shoulder.

"She did it!" He crowed and, catching sight of Gina approaching them, "You did it!"

The two engaged in a victory dance as Bulbasaur and Charmander lay down wearily on the Gym floor near each other, communicating in tired little grunts. Zahlia, smiling, kneeled down by the Pokémon and Orion headed over to the ecstatic trainers.

"Come on, guys. Lunch on me, anywhere you want in town."

Jason grinned ear-to-ear at the thought of free food, but the smile faltered for just a moment when he saw Zahlia look at her phone and jog out the doors of the Gym. The confusion was brief though, as Gina retaliated to an earlier noogie by messing up Jason's spikes. He launched himself into the war and Orion, laughing and apologizing to the next challenger standing uncertainly at the doors, dragged them out into the sunlight.


	13. Presto :Orion:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 13: Presto

(Orion Fremont)

"I've got two."

"_Two? _That's _it_?"

"Yeah, two! What's the big deal?"

Orion, Jason, Gina and Zahlia were seated around their favorite table in the Pokémon Center, poring over a map of Kanto. Gina had gone up to get them refills of their drinks, and Orion was engaged in a little battle with his brother over the definition of "over-prepared."

"Jason, buying extra Antidotes is not 'paranoid.'"

"Why would I even _need_ Antidotes? There're what, a bunch of Zubats and Geodudes in Mt. Moon?"

Gina, who had returned with their drinks, scowled slightly at the mention of Geodudes.

It had been about a week since Jason's and Gina's victories at Pewter Gym, and the team was now struggling to organize themselves for the trek through Mt. Moon. Jason had been under the impression that they could all get up and leave at any moment, and Orion had set out to prove to his brother that it was decisions like that that got New Trainer Initiates in so much trouble.

"Ah-huh, that's it, huh?" Orion asked. "If I remember correctly, there are also Paras in there. Paras with the Poison Powder move. And aren't Zubats poisonous too?"

"Yeah, well…" Jason said, clearly not wanting to admit that his older brother had a point.

"There's food to think about, too," Orion said, fishing in his bag for an example. It was a small foil package, very flat and lightweight. On the front was a picture of spaghetti. "What you do is heat this up, which shouldn't be hard for Charmander. You add a little water, let it sit for a little while, and when you peel it open, you have a small serving of spaghetti." He saw Jason's incredulous look, and Orion smiled and rolled his eyes. "The bag expands, like when you make microwave popcorn."

"Ohhh," Jason said, finally understanding. He apparently had kicked Gina under the table, because she spilled water, coughed, and said, "ow!"

"What?" Jason asked, refusing to believe he had kicked her as Gina grumbled at him and tossed her soggy napkin in his direction.

Zahlia had been pretty quiet throughout this conversation. Orion had noticed a gradual increase in her moments of distraction and distance. She was on her phone a lot and spent much of her time zoning out. While Gina and Jason were distracted, Orion leaned over and whispered to her.

"Everything okay?"

She seemed surprised to be addressed, but recovered quickly and offered him an awkward half-smile. "Well… I meant to mention this earlier, but... I'm not sure I'll be coming with you, after all."

Even though Gina and Jason had been completely absorbed in their conversation, they somehow overheard this small sentence. Both turned towards Orion and Zahlia, with differing expressions of disappointment.

"You aren't?" Jason asked, sounding scandalized.

"Where are you headed?" Gina asked, biting her lip.

Zahlia, predictably, grew tense and uncomfortable. Orion closed his eyes briefly, feeling her embarrassment sympathetically. After a moment, she explained.

"I just have some things to take care of," she said. "Thought they could wait a bit, but it's looking less likely. Errands," she elaborated when she saw the three intrigued expressions.

Orion's curiosity was piqued at once, but he somehow knew he wouldn't get far asking her questions about this subject. Plus, he'd be a hypocrite if he demanded full disclosure from her when he himself still had so many secrets. Not even his own brother knew why he had left Vermillion yet.

"Well…" Orion began, rubbing the back of his neck, "We'll be sorry to see you go. But, well, I understand you need to do what you need to do." He smiled at Jason slightly, who seemed to clamp down on the protests he'd been about to spout.

"Thanks," Zahlia said simply, and there was brief silence. After a moment, Gina broke it.

"Well! I think I want dessert."

"Yes!" Jason added immediately. "Split a Chocolate Apocalypse with me? Please?"

Gina made a face at him, demanding to know why he would want a dessert that foretold the end of the world, but Jason was already dragging her off to the counter. Orion and Zahlia shared a comfortable, if a little sad silence as they watched them head off.

* * *

Orion and Zahlia seemed to get more and more awkward as the next few days wore on. For some reason, ever since she had announced that she would be taking leave of them, a weight had settled in on their normally casual, friendly mannerisms. Jason and Gina seemed to be pretty oblivious, all things considered, and continued packing, training, and sightseeing around Pewter to their hearts' content.

The day of their journey to Mt. Moon, and consequently, the day when Zahlia would head off on her own, came too soon. It seemed to Orion that they had been sharing their last night of cocoa and coffee, talking and laughing, when he blinked and was waking up the next morning, getting into a shower. Another quick blink, and they were packed, sitting awkwardly in the Pokemon Center at their table, getting ready to say goodbye to Zahlia. She was going to head off while the sun had not quite risen, whereas Orion, Jason and Gina would be taking their time getting out the doors to Route 3.

"Well, can I get your numbers?" Zahlia asked, an uncertain smile coming to her face even as Orion pulled out his cell with an excess of gusto.

"I was—" he began.

"—Just about to ask?" she finished.

Orion felt his own uncertain smile turn into a lopsided, rather stupid grin. Jason seemed to be struggling horribly to keep something to himself, and whatever it was, Gina was in on it, because she elbowed him.

When they were done, Zahlia pocketed her phone and smiled sadly around at the others. "It's been really great meeting you all," she said. "Hope to see you again."

"Yeah," Gina said, stepping forward and hugging her. "You too. Thanks for all the support with my traumatic Gym experience."

Zahlia chuckled. "Tell Charmander I say bye."

Jason was up next, and also hugged Zahlia, with apparently more force than Gina had. Zahlia winced slightly, but nevertheless laughed at his joke that she could not be rid of them quite so easily.

Orion and she, strangely, shook hands as parting in spite of the fact that they had met first. He supposed they were both just a little too reserved to jump into big hugs like Jason and Gina.

"Keep an eye out for Clefairy in Mt. Moon," Zahlia suggested, and Orion nodded.

"You know it!"

The three broke off from Zahlia then, and she waved to them before heading out the Center doors and into the dim morning light outside. Orion didn't mean to, but he supposed he sighed. Jason picked up on it, and immediately put a hand to his forehead and made a swooning face.

"Oh, woe is Orion!" he crooned, and Orion hip-bumped him off balance in retaliation. Gina burst out laughing.

They took their time getting packed and ready, and Orion had triple-checked his room before he was satisfied that no pages of his notebook or articles of clothing had been left behind. Jason was one giant eye-roll by the time they went to the receptionist to check out.

"Aw, y'all are heading out?" she asked as she took Gina's and Jason's Dexes. "Shame to see ya go! I was getting used to your little pow-wow sessions over at the cafe."

Orion was peripherally surprised that they had stuck out at all in a Center that no doubt was still housing a fair number of trainers from the Initiative. "Yep, hitting the dusty trail," he said, handing her his dilapidated I.D.

"No need to show me that," she said to him, winking and accepting their three keychains. She typed some things into her computer and hit a button with flourish. "Alright! You're all set. See you kids! Bye, Daniel!"

Three sets of blank stares met her for a moment, before three faces split into embarrassed looks of recognition.

"Oh!" Orion said, grinning sheepishly as the receptionist frowned. "Yes. Good bye, ma'am."

* * *

The walk to Mt. Moon was pleasant enough, although halfway there the sun came up in earnest and Orion spent most of his time trying not to sweat too badly. He took to walking with his arms behind his head so a cool breeze would blow through his shirt sleeves and across his chest, which was the best he could do for now. He'd run out of conversational energy long ago, but Jason and Gina were another story.

"So you don't think that Red really caught the three legendary birds?"

"Heck no! How could one guy do all that in like, a year? Not possible."

"Well, who says it only took him one year?"

"_Victory Road_," Jason said. "Have you read it?"

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean I believe everything written in it. The author admits in the foreword that he didn't get an actual interview with Red… otherwise, y'know, he'd probably know Red's _real _name."

Orion chuckled to himself as he watched the two banter. He had to admit, he was happy to see that Jason had managed to grow into a social, upbeat, and energetic young trainer. He'd even managed to make and keep a female friend, which had taken Orion sixteen years to do. His smile faded as he realized that he had not really "kept" Zahlia as a friend, yet. If they kept in touch, he would count it then.

"So, why haven't you guys seen each other in… was it eight years?" Gina asked, kicking a stone a little farther down the path.

Jason shot Orion a look, and Orion bit his lip. They communicated briefly through that look, and Orion cleared his throat.

"Divorce," he said simply. "I went with Dad, and Jason went with Mom. They don't keep in touch."

Gina paused just a fraction of a second before saying, "ah," and Orion knew that it was pretty obvious there was more to their story. He hoped she wouldn't pry, and was grateful when she didn't. They walked in silence for a few more moments, and Orion squinted into the sky, seeing a flock of Pidgey overhead block out the sun for a few seconds. Gina continued kicking the stone.

After a while, Gina said, "I'm adopted, so I know a little bit about unusual home situations."

"Are you?" Jason asked, interested. "How old were you when you were?"

"Oh, young," Gina said. "I think one, two maybe. My mom in Pallet is pretty much all I remember, so, she's my mom for all purposes."

Orion nodded. "It's good that you're so cool with it. I know I've heard about some adoption drama in our family."

Jason seemed to remember immediately. "Ohhh… cousin Megan. Yeah. That was a nightmare."

Gina was instantly interested. "Uh-oh. What happened?"

Jason proceeded to tell her the uncomfortable story about how cousin Megan had thought she was a part of the Fremont family her whole life until eighteen years of age when she had accidentally stumbled upon the truth in her parents' records. The resultant fight had been written in letters and relayed over phone calls for months. Gina asserted that she'd grown up knowing about the adoption, and she reasoned that was why it didn't seem weird to her at all. Orion agreed that this was the best option, and Jason interrupted them by exclaiming over a Spearow.

"Wait wait wait!" he said, stopping dead in his tracks and causing Orion to bump into him. "I'm gonna try to catch it!"

Orion sometimes wondered if the word "catch" and "Pokéball" were red-flag keywords to wilds, because the words were no sooner out of Jason's mouth when the Spearow took to the sky and kicked up a huge flurry of dust at them. When they were done coughing and hacking, it had gone.

"Crap!" Jason said, kicking Gina's stone. "Man…"

"More where they came from," Gina said, patting him on the back with one hand while she rubbed dirt from her eye with the other. "Only one of the most common Pokémon in the world, after all."

"I guess," Jason said, still sounding bummed out. His mood didn't last long at all though, especially when the imposing shadow of Mt. Moon fell across their path. Orion had to crane his neck back to see the entire thing. He loved the way the tallest peak tapered off at the top, settling into a strange plateau-like summit. Many people from other cities far away mistook Mt. Moon for Indigo Plateau.

"Wow," Gina said, staring up at it. "… lot bigger than it looks from far away."

"Can't wait," Orion said. "One of the best Normal-type Pokemon lives in there, and I intend to exit the other side of this mountain with one."

"Good luck!" Jason said, dusting his hands off on his cargos. "I can't even catch a freakin' Spearow."

Gina, however, was distracted. Near the entrance to Mt. Moon was a trainer, and Orion instantly saw what had drawn her eye. The boy was beside a Charmander, who was delivering a brutal Scratch attack to a wild Nidoran.

Gina continued to watch the trainer and Charmander with interest. They defeated the Nidoran and the boy slapped his leg for Charmander to return to his side. He then pulled out his Pokédex and looked at it through the viewfinder.

"What level?" Gina asked, and the boy glanced up at once, surprised. He put a hand to his Pokemon belt, wary, but Gina laughed and put her hands up in front of her. "I'm not challenging you. Just curious."

"Oh," the boy said, looking sheepish. "Eight."

"Going to fight the Pewter Gym Leader?"

"… Yeah," the kid said, sounding more and more uncertain by the minute.

"My advice," Gina said, running a hand through her hair, "learn Ember." Orion fought back laughter as the trio made their way into the shade of Mt. Moon.

* * *

Mt. Moon had always been one of Orion's favorite places. Something about the ancient legends surrounding it, the peacefulness of the interior, and the rumor of rare Clefairy was just so appealing. He became a sort of Mt. Moon tour guide, pointing out where trainers before them had carved Moon Stones out of the rock. Gina asked how common Moon Stones were, and Orion shook his head.

"Not common at all, anymore. They've been harvested like crazy, but they must form a little quicker than most other gemstones, since we haven't completely run out yet. If you see one, let me know?" he joked.

Along the way, Orion stopped to point out the unique structure of the mountain, indicating where the daylight poured in from the opening at the top. It filtered in to the rest of the place, giving it just enough illumination to be comfortable. Gina seemed fascinated that this had formed due to natural erosion and, perhaps, a meteor strike from many millennia ago. Jason, of course, was far more interested in training.

Soon Gina and he had Charmander and Bulbasaur out at their sides, and their other Pokemon at the ready as well. Their first encounter with a wild Zubat (about fifteen steps into the cave) was a little scuffle over who would get the battle. Orion managed to convince them that there would be plenty more where that came from, and sure enough, he had barely finished his sentence when another two Zubats swooped in. Orion, Gina, and Jason all wound up having to fight them off.

"Should have caught one," Jason lamented. Gina laughed as she heard some screeching in the distance.

"You might get your chance," she said.

A moment later they were in another battle. This particular Zubat seemed much stronger than the last few; it had a new move, for one.

Orion thought he heard Gina shout something like "What the hell!" from his left, but he could not hear through his hands, which were clamped over his ears. Jason managed to point to his Nidoran, which jumped up and stung the Zubat. This stopped its brain-piercing noise just long enough for the three trainers to recover, but when Orion straightened up, he realized something was wrong. For one thing, he was pretty sure the world wasn't supposed to be sideways. In a moment he was on the ground, wondering how the heck Jason and Gina were standing upright. Weren't they going to slide down and hit the rocky mountain wall, which now served as the ground?

"Ember!" Gina shouted, and Charmander spun around and ran into Gina's female Nidoran, who was watching the battle from the sidelines. Nidoran yipped and kicked at Charmander to get it away. Jason groaned.

"Nidoran, tackle!" he called, but his own Nidoran missed target by an embarrassing margin and hit the ground in an ungainly way. Orion was stunned he could watch this all from such a severe angle and not feel nauseous.

_Crap_. He had spoken too soon. He closed his eyes, but that just made it worse.

"Frickin Supersonic!" Gina called to Jason. "That's what that horrible thing was. Now our team is confused. It—" She paused to watch nervously as the Zubat attacked Charmander, but Charmander managed to chase it a little ways off by waving its tail flame at the bat. "It says the time varies, for this to wear off."

"Well, great," Jason said. "Recall them then! We need to swap out."

Gina did so to Nidoran and Charmander, and Jason called back his team too. Pidgey and Bulbasaur were up next, and with their renewed attacks the very persistent Zubat finally retreated.

Jason made his way over to Orion, and Orion stared at his orange sneakers, trying to right his mind.

"Aw man," Jason said to Orion. "I wish we had a Pokéball we could recall you into."

"Shhh," Orion said. "Just help me up."

* * *

"God, it felt like my head was going to explode," Gina said, kicking off her shoes and stretching back against the ground. "That's one… unpleasant attack."

They had stopped for the evening, deciding that eight straight hours of walking and battling was more than enough. It was going on 8:30 p.m. now, and Charmander had lit them a little fire, just long enough to bring some prepackaged food to temperature. Orion had then requested they put out the fire to avoid smoking out this part of the cave.

"I know," Jason said. "But we didn't take it as bad as poor Orion here," he said, grinning at his brother. Orion stuck out his tongue.

"I suppose I just have a very sensitive inner ear," he said, and Jason nodded.

"Mmhmm, yes, I'm sure that's what it is." Orion tossed his fork at Jason, who caught it, then played keep-away with it.

Gina frowned to herself as she stirred her macaroni and cheese in its package. "Man, if Supersonic feels that way, can you imagine what… say, Psybeam feels like?"

Orion shuddered. "Speak not of it."

Dinner was a quiet affair, and after their hypothetical conversation about which Pokemon attack would suck the most (they had decided on Egg Bomb, due not to the pain but the sheer trauma of it) they were too tired to talk much. Jason was in the middle of a story when he realized that Gina had fallen asleep on him, and was in mid-sentence himself ("Frickin fell asleep, what…") when he too nodded off.

Orion smiled to himself and pulled Jason's sleeping bag a little closer around him, then laid down himself. He had barely let out a sigh when he was sound asleep.

* * *

Orion was facing a Hypno, and his heart was racing. The Hypno's trainer was obscured in shadow, but he instinctively knew who it was. Orion reached over to his Pokémon belt to send out one of his team, but found there was nothing there.

"What are you doing, boy?" a voice shouted from behind him, and Orion whipped around to come face-to-face with his father. "I told you, Psybeam!"

"I don't _have_ any Psychic-types, dad!" Orion insisted. "And I can't find my belt!"

"Goddammit, Orion, I don't have all day!" Nathan Fremont looked ready to tear out his hair. "Use Psybeam, you idiot!"

Orion just stared at his dad, hardly able to believe what was going on. "… What?"

Suddenly he was watching the fight from a third perspective, floating high above. It looked like they were somewhere pretty high up, and he could smell the sea. Fremont shouted more abuse to Orion below, and Orion balked from the words and turned to face the Hypno.

Suddenly things were from the Hypno trainer's perspective, and Orion was able to watch himself do something truly embarrassing. Orion put his hands to his head, closed his eyes, and said, "_Presto!_" in as convincing a voice as he could. The Hypno made a sad sound, and the trainer, whose eyes Orion was currently seeing through, burst out laughing.

"Fremont, your Pokemon hasn't been trained at all! What is this?" the trainer asked, and Orion was suddenly back in his own body, just in time to feel his father's combat boot shove him forward from behind.

"Psybeam! _What the hell is wrong with you?_"

"_I said 'presto,' what more do you want from me?_"

Orion woke up suddenly, not jerking around or sitting up. His eyes simply opened, he blinked a few times, and he was completely conscious. He remembered the Hypno, the fact that he was supposed to use Psybeam on it, but nothing else. He had a headache, he noticed, and blinked a few times to get his bearings straight.

_Weird dream, _he mused as he sat up and ran a hand through his hair. He often had some pretty interesting dreams, and he figured the Supersonic Zubat assault couldn't have helped things.

Orion glanced over at Gina and Jason, who were still sound asleep. Jason was sprawled out like a Staryu, and Gina was curled up in a small ball, only the top of her head visible in her sleeping bag. Orion smiled at them, got to his feet, and stretched. He was so completely awake it was as if he had never been asleep. He knew he wasn't going to achieve anything by tossing and turning, so he grabbed his Pokemon belt and attached it.

Even though it must be the middle of the night, Mt. Moon was beautifully lit. He had explained this to a very interested Gina and a very uninterested Jason, but he still could not believe the unique nature of the Mt. Moon rocks. When moonlight poured in through the crater-made opening at the summit, it was stored in the rocks it touched, like batteries or plants storing sunlight for photosynthesis. The result was a soft, ethereal glow that was more than enough to see by. It was no wonder that most new trainers wanted to tackle this as their first mountain.

He hadn't gone more than a hundred or so feet away from camp when he caught sight of something small approaching him from the corner of his eye, very deliberately. He turned to squint at it in the dim light, and his jaw dropped.

A small pink Clefairy was staring at him, quite without expression. It seemed to just be looking at him shrewdly, as if sizing him up. Orion had frozen in his tracks, hardly able to believe this. When he had boasted about capturing a Clefairy before reaching the other side of Mt. Moon, he had pretty much been joking. Trainers frequently spent months looking for these rare, shy buggers. Orion had no idea what the odds were of one strolling up to him as if asking the time, but he knew they had to be astronomical.

"Hey," Orion said, taking Meowth's Pokeball off his belt and hitting the button to enlarge it. He was very wary of his every movement, trying not to scare it away. "Wassup?" he asked, smiling slightly and wondering how stupid he looked.

The Clefairy, impossibly, walked closer to him, still maintaining its creepy eye contact. Orion hesitated, now totally not sure if he should send out his own Pokemon or not. Could this really be normal Clefairy behavior? They were so rarely documented in the wild, he had no idea what to expect. He wondered if he'd suddenly be on the receiving end of a Metronome attack. Hopefully he would take that better than he'd taken Supersonic.

The Clefairy suddenly bounded away from him, and Orion had one second to stare, dumbfounded, before he scrambled after it. He had only chased it for a minute or so when he realized he would get too far away from Jason and Gina at this rate. Cursing under his breath, Orion grudgingly headed back to the campsite. He got lost once, winding up in a completely different area, but he eventually found the three sleeping bags and lumpy backpacks.

He also found the Clefairy, sitting on his sleeping bag, as if waiting for him.

Orion froze again, wondering very hard if he was still dreaming.

He was not sure how long he stood there, staring down the Clefairy who was staring him down in return. Finally, he unlatched an empty Pokeball from his belt and aimed the little red laser to the Clefairy's stomach. It was a rookie move, of course, and the Pokemon would burst free and tear off into the night to warn all its other Clefairy friends. Orion hesitated.

The Clefairy glanced down at the red light, uninterested, and looked back up at Orion. Orion frowned.

"Aren't you going to run?" he asked it, almost wishing it would. This alternative was quite eerie. The Pokemon just looked at him. Orion hit the button.

The Clefairy was absorbed up into the Pokeball, and Orion held it loosely in his hand and stared down at it as it wiggled back and forth. The light on the front flashed and flickered, and the longer it did this, the deeper Orion's frown grew. When it suddenly went still, Orion felt a thrill of something like horror in his chest.

Jason stirred, snorted a little, then rolled over and smacked Gina with his hand. Gina grunted and moved away from him, burrowing deeper into her sleeping bag. After a moment they were both breathing in quiet time again.

Maybe it was because it was dark, or maybe he really didn't know anything about Clefairy, and this was totally normal. He knew he should be happy for his incredible luck. Instead, Orion felt strangely cold. He did not sleep for the rest of the night.


	14. Taken From Us :Victoria:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 14: Taken From Us

Victoria Larson

Victoria and Beth, as different as they were, shared some ability to communicate nonverbally. It was something they'd picked up after living together all their lives. There were certain days when Beth gave Victoria her space, which was normally a foreign concept, and days when Victoria went out of her way to reach out to her sister when she seemed to need it. Right now was one of those times where an unspoken agreement traveled between them: _Exhausted. Sleep now. Whatever we need to do can wait until tomorrow._

It had been a very long day for them. Victoria had fought viciously at the edge of Lavender town, near the tall grass that lead down to the long bridge to Fuchsia. Beth had fought a little less enthusiastically, often staring over at the horizon or dipping her feet in the water, but she still managed to get each of her Pokémon into at least two fights a piece, from what Victoria had been able to see.

They returned to the abysmally run-down Center located an equally abysmal distance from any entrance to Lavender Town around 6 p.m. It was such an illogical layout for the town, and it grated on Victoria's already taut nerves these days. Come to think of it, just about everything was getting on her nerves; even the morose expressions on the townspeople's faces were ticking her off.

Once they reached their rooms after a quick meal around 8 p.m., Beth slipped out of her jeans and collapsed face-first in bed. She was asleep in what seemed like seconds, and Victoria dismally wished she could sleep like that. She felt as if she was caked in layers of dirt, however, and wouldn't be able to even think about lying down until she scrubbed at least most of it off. With the encouraging thought of impending cleanliness to bolster her, she headed to the bathroom.

It was as equally run down as the rest of the place, lit by a bare bulb with a ball-chain. The light it gave off did little to illuminate the cracked porcelain facilities. The mirror was spotted and dingy, and so cloudy that Victoria could scarcely see the details in her reflection. She realized after a moment that it was covered in a thin sheet of plastic and, feeling stupid for not realizing this days ago, peeled it back. She smiled slightly as her visage became clearer, but the smile soon slipped back into a scowl. Why they bothered keeping their mirrors safe and spotless was beyond her.

She picked up her green toothbrush and loaded it with the single-serving toothpaste while she turned on the hot water with her foot. It took forever to get going, and by now she knew not to expect warm water for at least a full minute. While she brushed she glanced down at her green hairbrush and green shaving razor on the right side of the sink. She had made sure not to intrude upon the left side where Beth's blue things were haphazardly strewn. Since Victoria was right handed and her sister was the opposite, this setup had never failed them and was respected by them mutually. The green and blue motif they had adopted a few years ago also worked well, and Victoria thought their favorite colors made a pretty good combination.

Done with her brief mental vacation, Victoria rinsed at the sink and stepped beneath the fray of (of course) sleeting cold water. She groaned, unable to believe that she had forgotten to test it first. Cursing quietly under her breath, Victoria messed with the knobs and was rewarded with hotter water after a few moments. It seemed even her shower was destined to irritate her.

She normally used her showers as reflecting time as much as hygiene time, and the subjects of the night were the people she and Beth left nearly two weeks ago. The strange mountaineering siblings had indeed been intriguing. Under normal circumstances, such as meeting them while still in school, Victoria was quite sure she and Beth would have made some very good friends. Something about them simply rubbed her the wrong way, though.

On one hand, the boy was good conversation and pleasant to be around, and the girl was spunky and aggressive, traits that Victoria admired in a person. On the other hand, they had been secretive and odd, very set on their strange theories, and insistent on going against the law like vigilante wannabes. Victoria so hated those.

Her father had been like that. There was a man with too many dreams and too little regard for the law, bent on achieving his ends through any means possible. He gave no thought to the conventional way things were run. Victoria still remembered the way he would bring them home impossibly expensive jewelry, games and clothes. Her family hadn't been poor, per se, but they had never been well off. Victoria hadn't really started questioning it until she turned ten. That was when the fighting between her father and mother had started, and though they clearly didn't think she understood, Victoria had listened and absorbed.

Victoria had never been a stickler for justice, but she'd never approved of lawbreaking, either. So, when her father had been thrown in the slammer for his embezzlement, she had been torn between loyalty to her blood and a small, triumphant feeling that whispered to her, "_serves you right_." Feeling like a traitor, she'd not gone to visit him in almost a year, instead contenting herself with the occasional letter correspondence.

This was not quite the shower session she had imagined. It was like a train wreck though, and once she started, there was no going back. Her thoughts instantly went to her sister, sleeping soundly in the other room, and Victoria felt another shot of shame slide down her throat. Beth, for the most part, did what Victoria did. Beth was much more open with her feelings, and often told Victoria that she admired her and trusted her, so when Victoria had stopped visiting their father, Beth had tapered off as well. Beth was still the good daughter of the two of them, though, keeping in touch with their parents far more than Victoria did. It was their little weekly tradition when Beth sat down to write: "Do you want to say anything, Vee?" No, Victoria would reply. "I'll just tell them you say hi."

Victoria didn't know even half of what Gav and Kaylee were mixing themselves up in with Team Rocket, if Team Rocket did exist. She honestly didn't care to find out the extent of it. It would only serve as yet another thing that would grate on her nerves. Whatever it was they were gathering, she had a feeling the consequences would be far worse than a few years in jail. In the end, she didn't want any part of it. Most of all, she didn't want Beth, so easily trusting, to get tangled up in the potential web of danger they were weaving.

Stepping out from under the spray of water and toweling her wavy red hair dry, she firmly made up her mind. They would never see those two siblings again—and in spite of the friends they could have been, it was better that way.

* * *

The next morning Victoria was awoken by the sound of the unnecessarily noisy shower head being turned off. She was normally not a morning person, but this time her eyes snapped open as if she'd been awake all night. She must have slept very lightly, which irritated her as she got up and out of bed.

Beth emerged from the bathroom in a haze of steam and water vapor. "Morning Vee," she said, offering Victoria a small smile.

"Morning," Victoria murmured under her breath, groping in her bag for a change of clothes.

This was about all the verbiage the sisters exchanged. After they changed they headed to the dining area of the Center and ordered some take-out food and liberal amounts of Pokéchow. They ate outside in the weak sun at a table for two, and Victoria was suddenly struck with déjà vu. It had been two weeks ago that they had done this exact same thing in Saffron City.

That got her thinking about the events that followed. The Fearow attack, the problems with their cell phones, and the helpful way Gav and Kaylee had shown them back to the road stuck out in her mind. She did quick math in her head and realized that the siblings had probably saved them a good day and a half of being trapped out in the open.

"You thinking about Gav?" Beth teased lightheartedly. Victoria rolled her eyes and nudged her sister with her foot under the table.

"There are times I wonder if you're psychic," she said. "I _was_ actually thinking about those two."

Beth's interest seemed to perk up. "Y'know," she said in a blatantly obvious way that Beth probably thought was subtle, "You _do_ have Gav's number in your phone."

"No I don't," Victoria said, her brow furrowing in honest confusion.

"You do!" Beth insisted, leaning forward with wide, earnest eyes. "Remember? He had you call him to—"

"Ah, ah," Victoria interjected, the memory returning. "Yeah, I guess I do. Better make sure I don't pocket-call him or something," she muttered, starting to fish out her cell.

Beth made a frustrated sound. "Don't delete it… what if you need to get in touch with him?"

Victoria stopped digging for her phone and gave Beth a very even stare. "Why would I ever need to get in touch with him?"

There was a silence, and Victoria let out a breath. She hated doing this, but it was clear to her that Beth needed to be spoken to about this situation, again. "Beth," she said, unable to keep the slight despairing tone from her voice, "You do not even understand the kind of trouble those two will get themselves into in the future. If Team—" Beth's eyes widened and she hissed at Victoria to lower her voice. Victoria closed her eyes and prayed silently for patience. "… If TR exists, they are messing with the biggest organization of criminals Kanto has ever known. Even if they aren't, it's very possible that they're messing with _other _kinds of criminals, who are probably just as dangerous. Right now, they have no allies. They're messing with the law by recording things they should not be recording. I don't want us to have anything to do with the likes of them."

Normally this deluge of evidence would have been enough to dissuade Beth from arguing any further. Beth normally didn't fight hard for things, since she was never really seized with the dire need for much. Apparently this time was different.

Beth's eyes went melancholy, and with amazing perception, she shot straight to the heart of the issue. "Not everyone ends up like Dad, you know."

Victoria's mouth had dropped open, and she was about ready to argue vehemently when a waiter came out and returned a receipt that Victoria had evidentially left at the counter. When he had gone, Victoria could do no more than shoot Beth a salty glare before letting out her team to eat. Beth did the same, and the subject was dropped.

* * *

Victoria and Beth fell back into their routine for many days. They got up, ate at a place with terrible customer service, plotted out a training area on their map, and started out. When they were done, they returned to eat somewhere with terrible customer service, returned to their room, and slept.

On Monday Victoria asked Beth if she wanted to see the new romantic comedy that was out at the single little cinema in Lavender. Beth said she didn't really feel like it. It was the most they had spoken all week. Frustrated beyond belief, Victoria took out her irritation on the wait staff at their various dives and diners, earning herself an infamous reputation. She thought she even saw waiters playing rock-paper-scissors to see who would have to deal with their table.

Victoria tried to do things that used to calm her down in the past, but it was getting harder and harder to relax. She felt idle while she sprayed down Oddish's leaves, stressed while she balanced their budget for the week, and despondent when she tried to figure out ways to connect with her sister more.

On Thursday Beth spent most of the day away from her, exploring Lavender on her own. The siblings usually did not part ways like this, and it only made Victoria more frustrated, in spite of the fact that she was normally the one who asked for space.

She stared at Gav's phone number on her phone that day, wondering if he would have older sibling advice for her. Then she closed her phone and dove headfirst back into her training.

On Sunday Victoria made a waitress cry. Feeling like an ass as she and Beth took their food to go, Victoria made up her mind and pulled out her phone the second they got back to their room. Beth flopped down on her bed and groaned into a pillow, but Victoria had typed up a text message and sent it before she had time to think better of it.

_How goes your thwarting project?_

She had been careful to not mention anything incriminating outright, just because she figured they would be the paranoid type. In reality she was expecting a "who are you?" text back, or perhaps no response at all. Her phone buzzed in her hand though, and Beth looked up, curious.

_Same as always. Thanks for the subtlety, btw._

Victoria couldn't help but smile at that, and wrote back briefly. _No problem. Let me know if I should delete this # from my phone. _Right as she sent it though, she got a new text from him.

_I take it you made it to L? No new phone yet?_

A moment later, he responded to her least text: _No, not bothering me at all._

"Is that Cindy?" Beth asked, confused. Cindy was their very young, technologically-savvy aunt, and the only member of their family that understood text messaging.

"No," Victoria answered simply, responding to Gav's message.

_Naw, we never made it. We got murdered. New phones will be ready in a few days._

"Vee, who are you talking to?" Beth asked, heading over to her bed and sitting on the edge. Victoria got up and moved to Beth's vacated bed, and Beth made a sound of frustration. "Come on! It can't be mom."

"Naw," Victoria said, reading Gav's new message. _I guess L town is good if you're ghosts now. Do you have a limit on sending ghost texts? _She responded that she did not have a limit. To Beth, she said, "Just seeing if Gav also has trouble with extremely moody sisters."

"What!" Beth exclaimed, her eyes going very wide. "No. No, you're not. You're just messing with me. You're so frickin' mean!" After a brief pause, she said, "Let me see that!" and leapt at Victoria.

What followed was the most intense game of keep away they had played since childhood. Victoria and Beth screamed and ducked under thrown pillows, dove across the beds and Victoria's cell phone was thrown to many new locations. Beth snagged it for a moment, pushing Victoria onto her bed in the process, and scanned the screen quickly. "Is this him? Is this his number? 2-323—"

Victoria tackled her sister and wrestled the phone out of her grasp while Beth shrieked and laughed. Gav's message mirrored the one she had been just about to send to him: _sorry for the delay. Sister tackled me for my phone._

Victoria chuckled and wrote _ditto, _back to Gav while Beth leaned close, trying to read it. When the message was sent, Victoria glanced at Beth, regarding her for a moment, then smiled. Beth's face-splitting grin, which had been absent the past week, was a welcome sight. Victoria sat down beside her and read the messages from Gav aloud. Beth had questions to relay to Kaylee, which Victoria typed up and sent. This was how they spent their evening. Even when room service knocked half an hour later, inquiring about sounds of a struggle, Victoria was in too good a mood to chew them out over their late response to what could have been a crime.

* * *

A few days later Beth and she headed out the backdoor of the Pokémon Center and up the daunting path to Lavender Town's "haunted" Pokémon Tower. Things were much better between the sisters now, and they made fun of the Pokémon merchandise as they passed by a number of rickety old stands along the way. L-Town did not really know how to pull off the "tourist trap" thing very well. Compared to Celadon, this was pretty pathetic.

Victoria held the door for Beth as the two of them entered the mostly deserted lobby of the Pokémon Tower. The second she stepped into the threshold, the sparse hairs on the back of Victoria's neck shot up to stand on end. Superstitious was not a word she used to describe herself, but she still didn't like the vibe she was getting from this place.

Beth seemed affected by it too, which was saying a lot, as the girl could barely sense hostility even when it was directed straight at her. To see her sister with a case of the heebie-jeebies just as bad as her own bothered Victoria profoundly.

"First time in the Tower?" a very tan receptionist asked, glancing up from straightening out her desk. Victoria nodded curtly to her, and the woman smiled. "Unfortunately we'll be closing in about half an hour, but you can still skim around. Just keep in mind that the 7th floor stairwell is locked for a reason, no one goes up there… not even staff."

"Why?" Beth asked.

"It's a spiritual thing," the receptionist explained. "We're not even allowed to go in and tidy up." She shrugged. "Makes no sense to me, but there you have it. All the other floors are free to browse through."

Victoria thought it was a little morbid to treat a Pokémon cemetery like a sight-seeing venture, but nodded to the woman and held her comments back. She had half a mind to suggest they come back later, when it was brighter and more crowded, but told herself she was being ridiculous.

"Want to look around?" she asked Beth, who nodded a bit stiffly. Victoria had a feeling both of them were feeling weird, but neither of them wanted to be the first to say it.

The two girls made their way up the flight of stairs, and Victoria tried to keep her mind off of the growing bubble of apprehension in her stomach. Beth seemed to be distracting herself by glancing around the stairwell with keen interest at a series of deep fissures that branched off into smaller cracks. It looked like the handiwork of some very large object striking the wall numerous times. She wondered vaguely what in the world would be hitting a stairwell with such force in a cemetery, but that thought was blown out of her mind when she and Beth made it to the second floor.

From somewhere behind her, Victoria heard Beth clap a hand down over her mouth to stifle a gasp of shock and horror. Victoria felt a quick surge of illogical aggravation, her own knee-jerk reaction to shock. She managed to not spin around and snap at her sister ("What did you expect? We're in a freaking' Cemetery!") It was not Beth's fault that the sight before them was a truly gut-wrenching one.

Tombstones lined the floor from the very front of the room to the very back, with the larger plots farther away and the smaller ones closer. There had to be over 500 in this room alone.

The sickening thing was that Victoria could tell from the dates that many of these Pokémon had not died of old age.

She glanced down at the writing on the slab closest to her right foot and saw, with a jolt of disgust, that this victim had been a Clefairy less than a year old. Beneath the date of birth and death was inscribed, "Taken from us by Team Rocket. May Clefairy's soul rest in peace."

Victoria looked at the one after it and felt herself sinking, as if into a dream. "Taken from us by Team Rocket." The next one: "Taken from us…" It went on for what seemed like years.

It was not long before she realized that this entire room was dedicated to Pokémon that had been killed by the Rockets. There was no discrimination or mercy for the young or old; the Rockets appeared to kill anything that got in their way. Victoria thought wildly that, if she tried, she could find all 150 Pokémon listed here, their names engraved in stone.

Beth appeared to be crying beside her. Victoria was too numb with shock to do so herself, but deep within her chest she felt a fluttering wing of sorrow beating to get out somehow. She had never been good with expressing her emotions, however, and the wing curled and withered and burst into a flame of burning hot anger.

"I can't believe this," she began, softly at first, and then louder, because she couldn't stand the silence that was only broken every so often by her sister's soft whimpers. "I _cannot believe this_."

"Tory, don't yell," Beth whispered beside her. "Respect them."

Victoria, with effort, clamped down on her aggression. It went without saying that neither sister really felt like going on, but now Victoria's morbid curiosity had taken hold, and she wanted to know exactly how extensive the damage was. She started off across the floor, and when she didn't hear footsteps following her, she thought at first that Beth was going to turn around and leave. Another second though and, right as rain, Beth was at her side again.

The girls went up six flights of the tower in this manner, stopping to read the tombstones along the way. The second to fifth floors were dedicated to the Pokémon that had been lost in Rocket-related incidents. Over 3,000 Pokémon rested here, and these were only the ones they knew about, and the ones whose trainers had wanted them buried at this location. The number was probably double, Victoria figured, or even triple what was represented here. She was certain that the Rockets had no qualms about massacring wild Pokémon, perhaps mothers protecting their young, or those that refused to leave their homes when the Rockets decided to move in. Those that couldn't be sold for cash had no use to them.

Victoria had noticed it before, but had never really paid it any mind: no one really spoke of Team Rocket anymore. She had been born about thirty-five years after the criminal gang had been disbanded, and by that time no one was talking about it. All she had been told was that they were Pokémon gangsters who sold rare creatures for money and made a habit of running sieges on powerful corporations. She hadn't really cared to know more, since to her, it was a done deal.

Now she was positively burning up with the might of the curiosity in her. She wanted to know everything about Team Rocket's inner workings, the things they had done in the past, the things they _might_ be doing, even now, if—

She cut herself off mid-thought. With a sinking sensation in her stomach, she realized that Gav and Kaylee were probably the only ones who could tell her just that.

Victoria wasn't sure why she couldn't bring herself to don her normal reaction to things like this. She often told herself that when things were out of her control, there was no sense worrying. She supposed it was the sheer magnitude of the crime that changed her mind now. Even though these events had been over long before she was even born, she wished there was something she could have done.

It took a while for Victoria to realize that they'd been up on the sixth floor for a while. She was not sure how much of their half-hour had lapsed, and she never did find out. Just as she was digging for her phone to check the time, there was an enormous thud on the floor above her.

Beth and Victoria instantly turned to look at each other, matching frowns on their faces. One of their unspoken sibling communication moments took place: their expressions said, _the top floor is off-limits, isn't it?_

Beth bit her lip. "Someone might be working up there?" she asked quietly, whispering as if they were in a bad horror movie. Victoria stared up at the ceiling, her ears straining to hear any new sound. After a moment, she nodded.

"You're probably right… maybe the receptionist was wrong. Still, we ought to go back down and mention—"

She was cut off abruptly by a shrill, piercing cry from above. Victoria clapped her hands to her ears, not because the sound was deafening, but because it had been so sudden. Beth's eyes were humongous now, and the sisters looked to one another one last time before making a beeline to the door. Victoria could hear the murmuring of a male voice from above and felt goosebumps erupt on her arms.

Before they had even made it halfway across the floor, something changed. Victoria could not place it at all, but there was a shift in the very air around her. The hairs at the back of her neck stood up again, and she hesitated mid-step. From the corner of her eye, she could see Beth do the same. A voice came on over the crackling P.A. system, and Victoria's heart leapt into her throat before she realized what it was.

_"Good evening, the Pokémon Tower is now closed. Please make your way down to the lobby on the first floor. Thank you."_

"Let's go," Victoria said, hating this constricted, panicky feeling inside her. She did not even get to take another step.

A strangled scream broke the silence behind her. Victoria's heart exploded in adrenaline and she spun around at once.

Closing in on her sister, floating down from above, was a shady figure shrouded in the thickest mist Victoria had ever seen. Cold filled her lungs instantly. She coughed, and when she found that she couldn't stop coughing to take in more air, she felt the knot of apprehension within her spring alive and untangle into thousands of writhing coils of panic. _I'm going to pass out_, Victoria thought to herself in detached wonder, a second before another, more piercing scream shook her back to reality. Her sister needed her.

Her hand found the Pokémon belt at her waist just as the mist thickened and blocked Beth from sight. Victoria lunged forward, trying to grab her wrist, but her hand closed on empty air. The red light from her Pokéball was a welcome comfort, almost as much as the shaky outline of her Pokémon forming before her. She opened her mouth to shout a command to Bellsprout, but a coughing fit interrupted her.

"Go!" she wheezed out to Beth, who by some miracle, must have heard her. She heard footsteps running, and struggled to follow them. She hoped her sister had a better idea of where the stairwell was, because Victoria was just about blind in the mist.

The sound of Bellsprout using Vine Whip came to Victoria's ears. She paused, still coughing, and turned to peer into the choking white fog. She could just barely make out where the vines had disturbed the freezing cold air, and saw that her Pokémon was locked in combat. Victoria could not simply leave.

"Beth!" she called, amazed that her voice supported that one word. She dissolved back into coughing as Beth called to her, "Vee! Where are you?"

Bellsprout sent some sort of powder into the air—whether it was Sleep Powder or Poison Powder, Victoria had no idea. All she saw was a little mushroom cloud of something rising from a place to her right, and she moved away to not be hit by it. While she moved she tripped over a tombstone, and somewhere in the sound of her own coughing, she heard something clatter away from her—her phone. Victoria cursed.

"Beth!" she called one more time, struggling to her feet and feeling a stab in her side. Dizziness was setting in now, and what was worse, Beth had not answered. "_Beth_!" Victoria called again.

That was when something cold brushed up against the nape of her neck, and, almost involuntarily, Victoria turned to face it. Now she could see why Bellsprout had had no choice but to stop and fight. There were at least fifty of them—shrouded figures, dark spots that seemed to suck in the light, swooping slowly in around them.

Victoria called battle orders to Bellsprout and sent out Oddish as well. When she was no longer able to speak, her Pokémon carried out attacks without her, and Victoria hunkered down, calling for Beth when she could find the breath to. Her voice seemed to fall flat and die a mere three feet away from her.

She thought she heard running footsteps some time later, but she had no idea. Her last truly distinct thought in the haze of chaos was: _I sure as hell hope we make it out of here._


	15. Ectoplasm :Gav:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 15: Ectoplasm

(Gav Harrison)

Gav and Kaylee made it back to their campsite about an hour after sundown. It had been one of their few days devoted solely to training, but Gav had not managed to find much joy in it. Even Kaylee, who normally lived for battling, was quiet and thoughtful. It made for a somewhat awkward dinner.

He wasn't sure what it was, but in the past weeks the forest had started to make Gav feel claustrophobic. The towering trees and cramped, rocky terrain that he had once found solace in now seemed restricting. He'd taken up one of Kaylee's past times when he found he couldn't sleep: climbing trees. He'd found one of the tallest ones not too far from their site, and it was up on those highest boughs that he finally felt at peace. He had actually been quite surprised the first time he'd made his way up there. Just about everything was visible from that height. He thought he could catch hints of the tall skyscrapers in Celadon, partly obscured by the obtrusive Silph Co. building in Saffron. If he turned his head slightly to the right, he could see water, a sure sign that Cerulean City was nearby. Vermillion was not near enough to see, but he knew the sprawling docks and the S. S. Anne were laid out somewhere to his left.

Gav was a little homesick for Pewter, but no matter how long he gazed out to the Southwest, he could not see glimpses of his hometown.

Kaylee dropped her travel pack unceremoniously and flopped down on the mat, rolling over on her stomach. Gav meanwhile took a moment to finish off his water, stretch his neck a little, and stare up at the darkening night sky. When those few minutes were up, he sat down and yanked their accordion file of paperwork out of the smaller tent, and began flipping through pages in the dark. Something had occurred to him while they were training, and he had tried to keep it in his head so he could verify it once they were back.

He didn't realize he was being watched for about ten minutes. When a crick in his neck demanded that he look up, his eyes found Kaylee immediately, and a frown came to his face. His sister was looking at him with a borderline disturbed expression on her face, and she was nibbling nervously on the fingernail of her right hand. Gav's eyebrows rose, a silent question, but Kaylee just shook her head and turned to look at something else. Gav frowned, and decided to voice the question aloud.

"Something wrong?"

"Naw."

Gav chewed thoughtfully on his lower lip for a second, then went back to reading up on the illegal trade bust that had taken place last summer in Vermillion. The words were running together on the page, though; he supposed he was too tired for this. He dog-eared the paper, stuck it back into the accordion file, and shoved the papers back into the tent. Then he stared at the back of his sister's head.

"Kay."

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

Kaylee opened her mouth, then shut it. Then her expression turned angry, and she opened her mouth to speak again. She stopped once more. Gav's expression became bewildered.

"What? Seriously, just say it."

"I want to get out of this place."

"We just got back," Gav joked, but Kaylee scowled.

"You know what I mean."

Gav's half-smile faded. Drawing a hand over his face, he sighed. "Yeah, I do know what you mean, unfortunately. Kay," he paused, and scooted closer to her while he groped for the right words. "Kay, you know why we're out here."

"Because it's secluded and there have been rumors of strange activity in this area," she said, quoting his usual explanation word for word. "I know, I know. But dude, we've been here for what… a month and a half, _two_ months now? Don't you think if there were still Rockets here, we'd have found out by now?"

Gav had been about to argue his normal discussion points, which was a pretty standard procedure. Kaylee got bored often and needed to be reminded why they were stubbornly staking out certain areas. Something completely different occurred to him mid-sentence, though, and he stopped. Instead he gave her a searching, shrewd look and said, "This is about those two girls, isn't it?"

Kaylee's expression was actually kind of adorable: classic hand-in-the-cookie-jar. "No, actually, it's not… but they do have it a lot better than we do out here," she said, motioning with one hand to the stack of dishes and charred remains of their last fire. "They move around, you know… they see things and do things and meet people. Good God, Gav, how long has it been since we've had a Pokémon battle with other trainers?"

Gav let himself feel the intense pang of guilt that he so often felt during his "_I'm failing as an older sibling_" moments. Then he said, "Those things can wait, and you know it. We've been through this already."

"I know. But this time I want to know _why_."

"What do you mean, 'why'? You can't possibly need to know why. Look," the slowly rising anger evaporated from his voice. He felt about eighty years old during times like these. "I know this isn't fair to you. And we'll get out of here and into a real town soon, okay? I just need a few more weeks—"

"That's what you said _three weeks ago_. I don't see why you can't do your stuff in a Pokémon Center. No one will pay attention to two kids with Pokémon. They'll think we're a couple of those losers who want to be Masters, or something." Gav couldn't help but laugh at that. "It'll be fine, bro." She paused for a moment, and then scooted up next to him. "Please?"

"Kaylee-May, don't start with that," he said, busting out her full name to show she was about to be in trouble. She'd gotten him to laugh, which was the first step towards defeat. It also didn't help his cause that she had just brought up a lot of valid points. He was a sucker for valid points. He glared down at her, a little bitter that she was now pulling the sibling card on him. As his only immediate family left he could very rarely say no to her.

"Puh-_leeeeeze_?"

"Kaylee," he said again, not really able to make any concrete arguments.

"Please, Gav? You're saying two weeks, I'm saying… two more days. Okay? Compromise!"

"_Compromise?_" Gav asked, incredulous. "A compromise is a meeting in the middle! How is two weeks into two days a compromise?" There was laughter creeping into his tone, though, and Kaylee grinned at him.

"What do you propose then?"

"A week."

"Three days."

"Five."

"Four?"

"Done," Gav said, sighing heavily as Kaylee jumped up and did a little dance.

"_Yes! _Out of this stupid, boring forest in four days!" She then slid on her knees to Gav's side and latched onto him in a fierce, vice-grip hug. Gav laughed and messed up her hair.

"Only because you want it so badly."

"Why _else_ would you do it?" she asked him, an impish smile playing across her face.

* * *

The very next night, as if by serendipity, Victoria text-messaged him.

At first, Gav had no idea who the number was. He stared down at his phone with a blank expression on his face for a moment before it clicked.

He hesitated for maybe a minute, but typed up a response to her. It was not long before Kaylee cottoned on to what was happening and engaged in an epic battle with him over the device. Gav got no work done that night, but Kaylee and he did have a considerable amount of fun just hanging out by their campfire and reading his phone by the firelight. The following day Gav tried to convince Kaylee that, since they had lost an evening of work, he needed one more night out in the woods, but she would hear nothing of it.

When the fourth morning rolled around, Gav woke to find that Kaylee had packed up their entire campsite except for the tent Gav was still in and his sleeping bag.

"Really, Kay?" he asked as he ran a hand through his hair. "No breakfast, even?"

"Nope," Kaylee said. "We can eat real food in Lavender."

Gav did not immediately figure out what was wrong with that sentence, as his brain was not functional yet. After a minute or two though, he frowned and turned to his sister.

"Pardon?"

"We'll eat later," Kaylee said, laughing at him. "It took you that long to hear what I said?"

"In where?"

Kaylee paused. "In L-Town."

Gav felt mild irritation, which was not helped by the fact that he would evidently be skipping breakfast. "So this _is_ about following those two girls." It wasn't a question, but Kaylee answered it like it was one.

"No," she said with what barely passed as genuine indignation. "I just wanted a place that was close by and secluded!"

Gav rolled his eyes. "I'm sure. Look, we are not interfering with their lives, okay? They wouldn't want us hovering around them, and we can't afford to be slowed down, anyway. We probably told them too much as it is."

"I didn't mean that!" Kaylee insisted, but Gav was still not convinced. "So… so, we can go, right?"

"If you say so," Gav said, regarding her carefully. "But remember, we do not bug the girls."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Kaylee said offhandedly, already slinging her pack over her shoulder. "Now, hurry up, Slowpoke! I packed everything else, you pack up this tent."

"Woman! I just gained consciousness five minutes ago," Gav grumbled, and he and Kaylee settled into their normal routine of teasing each other.

* * *

In reality, Gav was hoping to do more than "not bother" the girls in Lavender Town. He was more so hoping they would not be spotted, period. It was strange that they had met in the woods to begin with, and if they were seen in Lavender so soon after their initial meeting, it would give off a creeper vibe. Kaylee seemed oblivious to these kinds of social consequences, but Gav tried to keep good etiquette in mind at least occasionally.

He did consider giving Victoria a head's-up via text message about their arrival in Lavender, but thought better of it ultimately. The fact that they had "spoken" again a mere three days ago was strange enough, as enjoyable a conversation as it had been.

Kaylee and he checked into the Pokémon Center and got set up in their separate rooms. It was still relatively early in the afternoon, but after climbing downhill with everything they owned on their backs, the siblings were bushed. Gav managed to mumble goodnight to Kaylee before he passed out on his bed.

His phone rang at around 8 p.m., and Gav didn't realize what the sound was at first. He rolled over and groped for his PDA in the dark, thinking that some sort of breaking news story had been received. He had set the device up to alert him when stories containing certain keywords popped up, but this ring didn't sound like that one. Gav blinked down at the screen with bleary eyes and saw that it was still dark. It took him even longer to pull out his cell phone from his pants pocket and pick up. It had almost gone to voicemail by the time he hit "receive."

"Hello?" Gav mumbled into the phone. At first all he heard was distant coughing, and, confused, he glanced down at the screen. Victoria's number was lit up there, and suddenly Gav's tiredness evaporated. "Hello?" he asked into the phone again, unconsciously getting to his feet and rubbing a hand across his face to encourage blood flow.

There was a shout, and Gav froze in his meandering stroll across his room. He thought maybe she had shouted her sister's name.

Gav was outside in the hall and knocking on Kaylee's door in a second. It took a lot of pounding and rapping, but his sister eventually came to answer him, looking royally pissed off.

"_What?_"

"It's Victoria and Beth," he said, pushing himself into her room and closing the door behind him. "Listen." He put the phone on speaker and shouted, "Hello! Victoria?" into the receiver. Kaylee looked at him like he was insane, but soon she heard the coughing too.

"Hello?" Kaylee tried as well, but Victoria didn't seem to hear. Instead the girl on the other end of the line called for her sister again, and Gav felt his blood run cold. That was not the sound of a sibling quarrel. Something was very, very wrong.

"Shit," Kaylee said, and Gav handed her the phone as he dashed out the door. "Gav, where are you going?"

He slid into his room and grabbed his PDA from the night table. He was back in Kaylee's room in a second, and powered up his device.

"Beth? Victoria? Can you hear me? Where are you?" Kaylee was shouting into the phone, but Gav tuned her out. He felt annoyance as his device notified him that the solar panel was offline and it was now running on reserve battery.

"Come on, come on, I know," he grumbled, shaking it even though that did not usually help with technology. It came online and he said to Kaylee, "Read me her number."

Kaylee did, frowning in confusion, and immediately followed with, "What are you—oh. Oh, good idea!" His sister got into her Pokémon belt and sneakers, while Gav hoped that Victoria was a fan of useless social media websites.

A grin broke over his face as a little map of Lavender Town in terrible pixilation loaded on his screen under the website's title, _Plot: instant updates from any location! _A thumbnail picture of a high heeled shoe in an overgrown rosebush popped up on screen, with curly green text that read "Victoria." The icon had an arrow pointing it to the Pokémon Tower. That, apparently, was her current location.

"Pokémon Tower," Gav said, pocketing his PDA and taking his phone, careful not to hang up the call. "Need my boots and belt, meet me in the lobby in a minute."

Kaylee responded by swearing, apparently unable to help herself. She had always harbored an intense fear of ghosts as a child.

Thirty seconds later the siblings started off from the Pokémon Center, after only a fraction of hesitation on Gav's part. He had a lightning-quick debate in his head about whether or not it would be wise to warn the receptionist that something might be amiss downtown. Ultimately he reasoned that they did not have time to wait for the police to come and interrogate them. He knew better than to wait on them for anything.

The siblings tore through Lavender Town, not stopping to apologize to people they almost bowled over. They were both in very good shape and kept good time with one another, racing through the streets and heading to the imposing structure at the heart of the town. Halfway there Gav reached into his cargos and pulled out his phone, which was still connected to Victoria's call. There was still the sound of a struggle going on, and now it seemed that a Pokémon battle had been added to the mix. He mentally urged the two sisters to keep their wits about them for just a little bit longer.

When Gav and Kaylee reached the building, it was to see a receptionist starting to lock the main entrances. They dashed right up to the glass doors, almost running into them, and knocked hard to get her attention, which was a bit unnecessary. She had seen and heard them racing up, and leapt away from the doors in shock. "What?" she asked, her voice muffled by the glass.

"Our friends are up there!" Gav said, pointing to the stairwell he could just make out from around the corner of the front desk. "We need them, it's an emergency!"

"They'll be down in a moment, I announced over the P.A. that—"

"Move!" Kaylee demanded, pushing the remaining unlocked door open and dashing inside. Gav didn't bother trying to stop her, but the receptionist did.

"Hey, what? No! You can't go up there! We're closed!"

"Our friends, ma'am, we'll be two minutes," Gav said, and didn't say anything else. Instead he sped after Kaylee, and could vaguely hear the sound of the receptionist's shoes clacking on the tile as she jogged to the stairwell to stare after them.

"Two minutes!" she shouted at them, though her voice was fading fast as he raced up. "Or I'm calling the police!"

The Pokémon Tower's architect must have been a three-year-old, or someone with a sick sense of humor. Instead of the traditional one flight of stairs on one side of the building, the layout of the tower had alternating sets of stairs on opposite sides of each room. One had to dash up one set of stairs and run across an entire floor to the opposite side of the building to dash up another. It was a pain in the ass, to say the least.

Gav caught up with Kaylee towards the fifth floor, which was unusual since she was quite fast. He realized what had happened though, when he drew level with her. Thick, choking mist was getting worse and worse the higher they went, and Kaylee looked winded. Even Gav felt his lungs struggling to pull air in efficiently.

"How much longer can it be?" Kaylee gasped. "Check your phone."

Gav listened to it, and frowned. "It a loud fight," he said shortly. "We should be able to—"

He probably wouldn't have caught the scream if he hadn't been paying so much attention. The shriek was so soft and faint that Gav was surprised he had heard it at all.

"Kay!" he hissed. "You hear that?"

"Yeah," Kaylee panted. "Higher up!"

The scream sounded again, and Gav knew they were very close now. They took the sixth floor stairwell at a dead run, and soon the sounds of Pokémon attacks met their ears.

They exploded into the sixth floor, and immediately had to stifle coughing. Gav exchanged a look with his sister, and they both silently agreed to try not to blow their cover. The element of surprise might be the only thing that would help in this situation, whatever was happening. The two half-jogged half-stumbled through the thick mist, following the sounds of struggle. Gav quickened his pace at once when he realized they were close to one of the girls, but suddenly the sounds shifted around him. It was the strangest feeling—like experiencing surround-sound in a movie theater, but in real life. One minute he had been sure that Beth was near him, shouting "Vee, where are you?" and the next second she was saying it from halfway across the room.

Gav passed right through something that felt solid for a second and completely gaseous the next. He was suddenly covered in something that felt like liquid but evaporated into icy-cold air the second he wiped at his face in alarm. It was like dry ice, and then chilled gelatin, and then something in between. _Ectoplasm_, he thought, and for once his logical mind did not deny that possibility.

He didn't see Victoria laying on the ground and almost tripped over her. He had been just about to call out to them, forgetting the need to be stealthy when Victoria cried out and elbowed him sharply in the knee. He yelped and tripped, collapsing in a heap beside her. She kicked ferociously out at him and he could barely cough out, "Cool it, I'm human!"

There were a few more seconds of flailing and struggling before she paused. A second later she latched onto his arm and shouted (or wheezed, since she seemed to be in a similar condition of suffocation) "_Is that you?_"

"Yeah, it's me—" his sentence was cut off by a cough, and suddenly he called out, "Kaylee! Where are you?"

"Over here," came his sister's voice, somewhere to his right. "Wh-what are these things?" The waver in her voice gave her away; she was scared out of her mind. A second later, though, a surge of flame shot towards the ceiling. She had let out a Growlithe, perhaps both.

Victoria's grip on his arm tightened to an almost painful degree as she gasped out, "Beth! She's over there." Gav put an arm under her shoulders and hauled her to her feet. She leaned on him for support, a gesture he knew was purely out of necessity. Victoria took a moment to right herself, then suddenly darted out blindly into the mist. Kaylee emerged from a cloud of white and coughed out, "Wait, where'd she go?"

"Beth," Gav explained, reverting to monosyllabic responses to save his lungs. "There!"

The two headed off after Victoria, and Kaylee gave Growlithe an order to send up a quick burst of flames every few seconds to mark their trail. It didn't help much by way of a path to the door, as the mist swirled back in the moment the heat was gone, but at least, in Gav's mind anyway, Beth and Victoria could see where they were.

Gav let out Cubone, which scampered on all fours after him, holding its bone club in its mouth. He marveled at how easily Victoria had vanished into the mist. She'd barely taken three steps away from them when they could no longer see her.

"Stay," Gav said to Kaylee, finding that taking many rapid, shallow breaths was more effective than trying to fill his lungs entirely. "Don't get ahead."

"Right," she said, coughing and pawing through the dense fog ahead of them. For a brief second the air parted in the wake of her hand and a blessedly clear patch appeared before them. In that brief second, Gav caught sight of Victoria's red hair about ten feet ahead—and the fog coiled back into place.

"Growlithe!" Kaylee shouted, and a whirl of flames exploded inches from Gav's left ear. He flinched away and almost fell, but it did the trick. The mist cleared for another moment, and they were rewarded with the sight of figures up ahead.

"Mist ends ahead," he announced to Kaylee, and they dashed forward with renewed gusto, trying not to trip on tombstones.

Gav found that he was right; he lurched forward and out of the thick fog suddenly. Taking a second to reorient himself, he realized that the fog had been creating a hurricane vortex all around them, and they were now in the "eye" of the storm. Intimidating would have been the understatement of the year to describe the imposing wall of foggy white that spiraled up to the ceiling. That was not the worst part, though. Roughly fifty shadowy figures were here with them as well, closing in on Victoria and Beth, who were standing back-to-back in the center with Bellsprout and Poliwag.

The figures defied description. They looked almost human, but Gav knew they couldn't be. He wondered if they could possibly be Pokémon. The forms shifted in a way that made him think the things were just projections of light; then he would reconsider and wonder if they were truly of flesh and blood. He analyzed all of this in the back of his mind, his next action already decided.

"Cubone! Bone Club!" Gav shouted impulsively, indicating a dark hand that was reaching out to Beth. Obediently the small brown Pokémon leapt in front of him and wound up its swing like a pitcher and batter in one before releasing its foot-long bone and sending it sailing through the air.

Gav fully expected the thing to fly right through the figure. Naturally, his surprise was complete when it hit target with a solid _whock_! The figure seemed to explode into a fray of mist, and in its place was the least human-like thing Gav had ever seen; a floating black ball with impossibly large, milk-white eyes and alabaster fangs.

_Of course_, he thought to himself, feeling foolish. _They _are _Gastly._

Everyone seemed shocked, even the remaining ghosts. There was a moment of almost comical silence. Then the Gastly and its remaining comrades attacked.

"Elemental attacks can hit Ghosts!" Gav shouted unnecessarily, as Victoria was shouting "Vine Whip!" the same instant Beth and Kaylee barked out orders as well.

"Water Gun!"

"Ember!"

The fray was intense. Dark waves of energy flooded the room and made Gav feel weak. Cubone took a nasty blow and seemed down for the count, so Gav recalled it and sent out Geodude instead. Ember and Water Gun seemed particularly effective, and Gav found that after Cubone's first surprise shot, he wasn't having much luck hitting the things. The girls were doing well enough, but Gav suddenly realized it wouldn't last as twenty more Gastlies flooded in from the corners of the building.

Right as he shouted, "Everyone!" a voice came over the P.A.

"_Alright, get out of there! I'm coming up after you if you aren't down here in 30 seconds, and nothing better be broken!_"

They didn't need to be told twice.

"Get ready for one last attack, we have to distract them!" he ordered. The girls all gave some form of affirmation and followed his lead, backing up against the wall of fog. Gav reached out to grab Kaylee's wrist, and felt Victoria take his other one. Kaylee did the count down for him.

"One-two-three!" she said at light-speed. "Ember!"

Fire and water exploded in front of them, and the hard sounds of plant striking target cracked through the air. The Pokémon turned and ran towards them to be recalled to their Pokéballs the second the attacks were done, and no one stayed to see if the Gastlies were discouraged. Gav pulled them off in a straight line, knowing they would hit a wall at some point and would be able to find the stairs from there. It would have normally been ungainly for four people to run in a line while holding hands, but adrenaline fueled them and made them very adept. Gav could hear the ghosts pursuing them, but didn't chance a look back. They hit the wall and set off to the right in unison, breaking contact with each other to race along with one hand against the brick. It was not long before they reached the stairs and began bolting down them two at a time. It was only halfway down the Tower when Gav's lungs eased up and he realized that the Gastlies weren't following them anymore.

The receptionist was waiting for them, looking more scandalized than Gav could ever recall anyone looking in his life. The four teens stopped running, at last, and leaned over or on things for support, panting and clutching at their sides. The receptionist exploded into a torrent of questions.

"What in the world took you so long? What happened up there? You stay here, I'm not letting you go so quick, what were you doing?"

The sisters seemed desperate to say something, but no one was able to form words just yet. The receptionist, pissed off though she was, did give them paper cups of water which they gulped at greedily. Finally Victoria was able to speak.

"Top floor," she began in broken sentences, "off-limits? Yes? No one's there?"

"Yes, of course, I told—"

"Someone _was_," Victoria interrupted, panting in between. "Someone was up there, with a Pokémon. Big one."

There was a pause. This was all news to Gav, who exchanged a look with Kaylee before turning back to the girls.

Beth took over. "Yeah, someone made a loud noise and… we were going to come tell you when…" she stopped and stooped over, and Victoria finished.

"What is with your Gastly problem? Shouldn't you freaking _warn_ people?" she demanded, her voice rising and a sharp, rather scary look coming to her green eyes.

"Gastly? What?" the receptionist asked, confounded. "Yes, there are sometimes Ghost-types up there, but most people hardly see any—"

"'Hardly see any?'" Victoria repeated, disbelieving. Gav could actually see Kaylee shrinking down beside him. "Hardly _any_? My friends and I were just attacked by no fewer than fifty!"

"_What_?" the receptionist asked again, going suddenly pale. Gav marveled silently at how quickly the blood seemed to leave her face. "Oh my God. Are you serious?"

"No, I'm _just joking_," Victoria snapped sarcastically, and Beth sat down on the ground, apparently unable to stand any longer.

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry. I'll call over someone from the Center to take a look. Are you okay?"

Victoria opened her mouth to retort, but Gav stepped in.

"Ma'am," he said, "what about the top floor, like they said?"

She shook her head. "What you girls heard was probably a Gastly up there. They normally stay out, but…"

"Wasn't a Gastly," Beth murmured. "Sounded like a big bird."

There was another moment of silence. The receptionist had her telephone hovering by her ear.

"I'll file a police report, too," she promised. "Stay here." With that she dialed away and began talking.

Gav and Kaylee exchanged a look. They were skeptical about the police, to put it lightly, but for now they had orders to stay put. Gav sat down beside Victoria, who was still visibly fuming from her interaction with the woman.

"You alright?" he asked of her and Beth. Beth nodded weakly, and Victoria curtly. "Good," he said, closing his eyes.

Victoria finally seemed to realize that they were actually there. "How the… how did you know?" she asked, censoring what was probably an urge to swear. Confusion, bordering on alarm came to her eyes even as her sister looked at them as if they were heroes.

"You pocket-called me," Gav explained. In the background he could hear the receptionist hang up with one person and dial another.

"I did?" Victoria asked, still sounding a little dubious. Then she seemed to remember something, and slapped her forehead. "Great. My phone's still up there."

"After that I found you on Plot," Gav finished, knowing that would be Victoria's next question. "It said your phone was last registered at the Tower."

"Plot?" Victoria asked, frowning. "I'm still logged on to that site? I'd forgotten."

"Thank you," Beth said to Kaylee and Gav, her face conveying her intense gratitude in an enormous way. "So, freaking much. We'd have been so screwed."

"What I want to know is what made those Gastly so aggressive," Gav said. Now that they were not in immediate danger, a hundred and one questions suddenly occurred to him. "I am _sure_ they're not normally like that."

"Huh," Victoria uttered, a harsh, sarcastic sound. "Maybe they are, and this idiotic establishment simply failed to tell us."

"No," Kaylee said, speaking up for the first time. "I'm pretty sure they're normally shy… they're classified as rare, right Gav?" Gav nodded. Kaylee frowned. "So… to have like a million of them swoop in on you like that… that's got to be weird."

Victoria looked like she wanted more excuses to be angry, but couldn't think of any. She eventually settled for just closing her eyes and sitting still, which was what Beth was doing now too. Gav zoned out for a few blessed moments until the receptionist hung up with the second group of people.

"Alright," she said kindly to them. "I'm so sorry to keep you, but you understand. The police need your statements. Right now they're asking us to clear out of the building, and just keep an eye on the doors until they get here.

Victoria glared tiredly at the woman, but Gav nodded. "Sure, ma'am."

An hour and a half later, the police still had not shown up. Victoria's temper had boiled over many times, but now she seemed to be on simmer mode. Beth was nodding off against her sister as the four leaned against the wall of a closed clothing store.

Kaylee and Gav, however, shared matching grave expressions. Gav had been typing furiously on his PDA, and Kaylee didn't even look to see what he was doing.

— _1.5 hrs, no LPD presence, no explanation to delay_

— _checked breaking news and police feed, no accidents/incidents to cause delay_

— _ms. Ida Silvermann, PTower receptionist, confused. good actress or innocent_

— _PKMN Ctr reps leave 22:05. found nothing unusual re: Gastlies. returned v's phone. no sign of tampering._

Unknowingly, the siblings had stumbled upon another incident for their file. Victoria glanced over at him, and, in a tone that was probably as nice as she could manage, asked, "What are you up to?"

Gav glanced over at the receptionist, who was a good distance away talking to the owner of a bar who had come out to check on them. He muttered, "Filing a report for our project."

Kaylee glanced over at him, surprise written on her face. Beth must indeed be asleep, because she made no move to react from her position against the wall.

"Is this incident TR-related?" Victoria asked a bit sarcastically, but Gav only smiled halfheartedly at her.

"Hour and a half, and no response from the police. Nothing is stopping them from getting here. It's possible they think we're dumb kids making stuff up, but we have Ida to back us up." He entered another line of information on his PDA, saved the file, and put it on standby mode. "They're avoiding coming here for a reason."

Victoria sighed. Gav lifted an eyebrow. "You asked," he pointed out.

"I know," Victoria said. There was silence for a while again. Victoria glanced over at Gav again, and he met her eyes, a mild questioning look on his face. "Thank you," she finally said.

Gav felt the small, tired smile on his face change to a more genuine one. "Feel free to pocket call me when you're in distress any time. We might have to start charging roaming fees, though."

Victoria rolled her eyes at him, but he had done it. That last comment had made her smile.


	16. 21, What's Your Emergency? :Gina:

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 16: 21, What's Your Emergency?

(Gina Ikeda)

Gina, Jason and Orion got into a few debates about whether or not they were lost in Mt. Moon. Orion insisted they were fine and he knew the way out, but after a week of walking and camping, Gina and Jason began to have their doubts.

Gina also had no clue how Orion had managed to capture a Clefairy on their first night in the cave. She understood even less why he was not constantly training it. In all honesty, Orion didn't seem too happy about the catch. Whenever his new Pokémon was brought up he would end up changing the subject, subtly. She was pretty sure Jason didn't catch it, but she did.

One thing she could say for him was that he'd been right about preparedness. Gina was running worriedly low on Potions, and had had to use two Antidotes already. She'd moved Nidoran to the top of her team since it was immune to poison, which was convenient. Jason and she had decided to stop attacking wilds and only fought when they had no choice.

While Jason and Gina were still pretty focused on training, Gina had caught Orion fiddling around on his phone a lot. She couldn't help but smile when she saw him doing this; her theory was that he was exchanging messages with Zahlia. He was sure to do it when Jason was distracted, like now, probably so his brother wouldn't give him flack about it. At the moment, Orion was surreptitiously texting, and Jason was flicking through his Pokédex, skimming through the "about" section.

"The 'Escape Rope' feature uses the teleportation technology and can be activated at any time. When the trainer is stranded in the wild with limited resources, this feature will transport the trainer back to the last Center their Pokédex registered."

"Registered?" Gina asked. "Um… crap, I don't know if I did that at Pewter."

"Let me look…" Jason scrolled down, frowning at the screen. "Oh, no worries. It does it for you automatically when you walk in the doors."

"Oooh, creepy!" Gina said, faking a shiver. "They know where we are all the time!"

"Kinda bums me out," Jason said, lowering his Dex. "Makes you feel a lot like a little kid, huh?"

"Well, we're twelve," Gina reasoned. "Makes sense."

"Yeah, well… I dunno, I just think about Red's time, you know? His Dex was old school, they didn't have all this tracking and teleportation stuff."

"Lots of kids went missing and died too, though," Orion said, finally speaking up and shoving his phone out of sight.

"Yeah," Jason allowed, still with a tone of reluctance. "Bet it was way better back then though. You could only be a trainer if you were really smart, independent… stuff like that."

"I'd say you guys are pretty independent!" Orion asserted. "You've done really well so far. Just because the safety net is there, doesn't mean you have to fall."

"Deep, maaan," Jason said with a slow nod and grin.

"Let's keep trying not to 'fall,'" Gina pointed out. "'Cause you and I will get transported back to Pewter and Orion here will be stuck on his own!"

"Gah," Orion said. "Not fun."

Gina poked at her spaghetti, briefly daydreaming about eating food that didn't come from foil again soon. She thought it was pretty funny that she was tired of camp food after only a week or so of it.

"Ready to walk?" Orion asked them as he lay down their trash and stomped it flat.

Jason sighed theatrically. "Yeah, I guess."

"Buck up!" Orion said, slapping Jason on the back. "We'll be out soon."

Gina finished her food quickly and added her flattened package to the trash bag. It was her turn to carry it so she tied it to one of the straps on her backpack where it brushed juicily against her leg. _Yuck_.

"Should we let our teams out?" she wondered aloud.

Jason shook his head. "Nah. It's not sundown yet, most of the Zubats are asleep."

The three traveled on like that for a while, occasionally speaking. Gina was continually amazed that she and the two brothers still had things to share with one another after a full week of relatively boring hiking. She'd pretty much run out of things to talk about with her peers in Pallet halfway through school, which was pretty sad, but typical for a small, boring town. Of course, Amaris and she always seemed to have things to say to one another, but she figured unloading abuse on each other didn't really count.

"Dude, no! No no no! Lance has been, and always will be, the single most badass member of the Elite 4!" Jason exclaimed, turning to face them and walking backwards.

"See, that's what everyone says," Gina remarked. She put her hands up as Jason looked scandalized. "Not saying Lance isn't a badass. But take Lorelei. Did you know that of the very few people who have ever reached the E4, over 90% never made it past her?"

"That's just 'cause she was first in line."

"Or because she's a great trainer. Think about it," she said, moving to walk beside Jason, since he'd turned back around. "The combination of water and ice… there are really not many other type combos that can do more damage. Fire is risky, Grass, same thing. And—" she moved in front of Jason to face him, "ice is strong against Dragon. I bet Lorelei frequently kicked Lance's butt."

"Blasphemy!" Jason hollered. "Besides, you just like her because you're a girl."

"Dude," she said. "I have Charmander as my starter. It's basically against the law for me to like her."

She supposed Jason and she didn't hear it because they were so absorbed in their conversation. She might have not even noticed that Orion paused if she hadn't been turned to the side while talking to Jason.

Orion slowed, his head tilted to the left, and eventually stopped. Gina reached out and grabbed Jason's arm to get him to wait.

"What's up?" she asked, direly hoping it wasn't the sound of early-rising Zubats.

"Do you hear that?" he asked, craning his neck. "Sounds like someone fighting."

"Ooh, a battle," Jason said, rubbing his hands together. "Let's go watch and make them feel uncomfortable."

"No no, not that kind of fight," Orion said, drawing closer. "You don't hear it?" he asked, frowning now.

Gina and Jason fell quiet, and as soon as they did, it came to them. Somewhere in the cave up ahead there was the sound of shouting and sneakered feet running in short, quick bursts across the dusty ground. Gina frowned, and also stopped moving altogether to listen better. The shouts were, indeed, not the kind she'd normally chalk up as a trainer battle. It sounded like a dispute.

Jason started ahead. "C'mon, let's see if we can help."

"Jay—wait," Orion said, jogging to catch up. "We should probably mind our own business."

Gina was torn, following the brothers for now. "Let's at least see if we can take a look," she said, the number for the police hotline flashing through her head.

They walked forward quietly, straining their ears less and less as the sounds got louder. The closer they got the more nervous Gina became. Jason, on the other hand, seemed to be steadily more excited. Soon they could make out the words.

"—away from me!"

"—told you to shut up!"

Gina took in a short breath and exchanged a look with Orion. He shook his head, and they both looked at Jason nervously.

Sure enough, Jason was starting forward. Gina and Orion lunged and grabbed hold of the back of his t-shirt.

"What?" he hissed. "We have to help!"

"Us and what army?" Orion asked as Gina pulled out her Dex and dialed up the police. While it rang she inched ahead to try to catch a glimpse of the people involved, but Orion put a hand out and shook his head.

"I'll look," he mouthed.

Gina watched apprehensively as he moved silently off, with Jason tailing him. Someone picked up the phone.

"21, what's your emergency?"

"We're in Mt. Moon, closer to the Cerulean side and—" Gina was interrupted.

"Are you a new trainer? I see you're calling from a Dex."

"Yes, I—"

"Are you stranded without resources?"

"No, I'm not. There's a fight—"

"If your Pokémon have been hurt in a fight please activate your Escape Rope feature, which can be found—"

Gina couldn't believe it. She almost yelled into the phone before she remembered she was supposed to be quiet.

"I'm fine! There's someone threatening someone else in here," she hissed.

"Alright," the bored voice said. "Please describe the individuals."

Orion returned just in time, and Gina shoved the Dex into his hands to make life simpler. She caught snatches of him mumbling as she snuck forward to join Jason, who was watching the dispute from around a corner.

"How is it?" she asked.

"Bad," Jason said, fidgety. "They've got him cornered."

Gina crept to his space and peered around the rocky pillar, her heart rate accelerating. A man with a scruffy brown goatee was indeed cornered against a wall, and at least three other men were closing in. Gina held her breath, wishing Charmander was a Charizard and she was a 6-foot tall pro-wrestler capable of charging in to help. It was hard to believe something like this was happening in Mt. Moon—whatever this was.

"_I don't have any!_" the man shouted, and one of his assailants lunged forward at him, causing the man to flinch away.

"_Shut up_," one of the men at the front hissed. "We'll let you go, but you have to work with us, right? Meet us in the middle, yeah?"

Gina shivered. It was like something out of a movie. She tugged on Jason's sleeve, but he shook her off. Gina paused, but let him stay. Orion was just hanging up when she reached him. They asked their hushed questions at the same time.

"Where's Jason?"

"Are they coming to help?"

Gina answered first. "Nothing. Just watching."

"They're sending someone," Orion said. They silently headed over to Jason, but he spun around and ran to them halfway.

"They took off!" Jason whispered, motioning urgently for them to follow. Orion and Gina exchanged a quick look and jogged after him.

Sure enough, the three men were gone, but the man with the goatee remained. The three friends hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward.

"Sir?" Orion asked.

"What!" the man shouted, dropping something all over the ground.

Gina had her Dex in her hand. She didn't even consciously think about it; she just flicked the side button to call up her camera, and hit the "capture" button.

"We're just trainers," Orion said, putting his hands up. "Are you okay?"

"What'd you see? You call the cops?" the man demanded, not at all the reaction Gina had anticipated. She quickly slid her Dex into her back pocket, suddenly nervous to be seen with it. The man was down on all fours now, scooping up what looked like rocks and shoving them in his pockets.

"Are you okay?" Orion asked again, his voice growing firmer.

"I'm fine, you called the cops, didn't you? You did. I know you did."

Orion was silent, and Jason and Gina followed his lead. The man swore softly under his breath again, and slouched against the wall. He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.

Gina was going to ask him something, but right as she opened her mouth he bolted.

Gina's mouth fell the rest of the way open. There was a split second of stunned silence.

"Wait, sir!" Jason called, dashing after him. "Hold up!"

Orion and Gina also gave chase, but goatee man was ridiculously fast. He sped around a corner and by the time they reached it he was gone. They slowed their run and just stared for a moment, dumbfounded.

"We should follow up with 21," Gina finally said. Orion nodded, and she pulled out her Dex. The first thing she saw was the photo she'd snapped. She saved it to her Dex's hard drive, then called up 21.

"21, what's your emergency?" the same woman asked.

"I called a few minutes ago," Gina said at once, not giving her an opportunity to interrupt. "The men all ran off, towards the Cerulean exit, I think."

"Is this in regards to the Mt. Moon dispute?" the woman asked.

"Yeah," Gina said.

"Very well. Please remain where you are unless you are in danger. If you are in danger please activate your Escape Rope feat—"

"Yeah, thanks, we'll be here," Gina assured. A moment later they hung up.

"I guess we just stay here until the police arrive," Gina said with a sigh. "She didn't say anything else."

"Great," Jason said, sitting down. "Nobody's gonna even believe they were here."

"Guys," Orion interjected, halting Gina's next sentence. "Let's go back a ways. I don't like being in this area."

On their way back, Gina muttered to them, "I got a pic of the one guy."

"You did?" Jason exclaimed, and Gina and Orion made hissing hush sounds at him. "When'd you do that?"

"Super ninja stealth paparazzi," she said. "Not great quality, but at least we can prove one person was here."

"Good going," Orion said, smiling at her.

"Yeah, if the trainer thing doesn't work out you can go stalk rich and famous people."

The mood was a little lighter, but Gina and the others were still rather quiet for the 45 minutes it took for two officers to roam down their way.

Orion did not stand, which Gina found interesting. She figured it was because it had been her Dex that placed the 21 call and also contained the photo. She met the officers part way.

"Hi," she said, not having any clue how to start this conversation.

"Gene Ikeda?" the first officer asked. She felt a thrill of dread from the intimidating image of a law enforcer using her full name.

"Yeah,"

"You made the 21 call at 6:47 p.m.?"

"Yes."

"Those are your friends?" The other asked.

"Yes," Gina said, deciding that one-word answers were best for now.

"We'll need their names as well," the first man said.

Gina expected Orion and Jason to get up at once. When they hesitated she did a double-take.

Jason approached first. Instead of telling the man his name he handed over his Dex. Gina frowned, but apparently this was acceptable.

"Jason Fremont," the officer said aloud. "You Nathan Fremont's boy? One of 'em?"

"Mmm," Jason said noncommittally. Orion gave his I.D. next. The officer peered at it, frowning.

"Daniel Fremont," Orion said, after a moment of hesitation.

"Ah," the officer said. "Relation, I presume?"

"Cousins," Orion said, his face stiff and expressionless. Gina stared straight ahead, trying to keep her poker face. Seeing someone tell a bold-face lie to a police officer stunned her into silence.

There was a pause as the officers typed things up into clunky handheld devices. When they were done they returned Orion's and Jason's credentials.

"Alright, so the four guys ran off. How long ago?"

"45 minutes?" Gina said, managing to make it sound like a question.

"Which way?"

"Towards Cerulean. Well, the man being harassed. Not sure about the other three?" she said, glancing at Jason, who was the only one who had seen them depart.

"They headed there," Jason said, gesturing behind the officers and down a side path.

"Thanks," the officer said. "Well, we're going to transport you three to Cerulean if that's alright."

"I don't have a Dex," Orion mentioned.

"And Jason and I haven't been registered to Cer—"

"Not a problem," the first man said. "We've got enough police transporters for you three."

Gina, Jason and Orion all exchanged a brief glance, but what choice did they realistically have?

"Alright," Gina answered for them.

* * *

The teleportation ride was a harrying one. Gina was suddenly violently grateful that she had not been teleported after her single Pokémon battle with Amaris, or after losing the first time against Armstrong. She never wanted to experience it again. Orion too looked a little queasy.

Both officers had stayed back, but once the three were out of Mt. Moon they were met by another officer. She scanned them over and asked their names, which they gave her. The escort to Cerulean was an awkward one. Hikers, trainers and tourists stared openly at them, clearly thinking they had been busted for breaking the law. Gina was bright red and tried not to show her face. She didn't think things could get much more embarrassing, but she was wrong.

"_Gina?_"

Gina's head snapped up and her eyes searched around for the source of the voice. Of all the places to run into someone who knew her…

Of all the places to run into Amaris.

If Gina was red before, it was nothing compared to now. She had no idea what her face was doing, but Amaris' expression was one of shock and suspicion, like he expected to be on some Candid Camera show. Gina looked away from him at once and continued walking straight ahead.

Jason whispered behind her. "Was that the professor's son?"

"Nephew," Gina said dismally.

"Oh."

There wasn't much more to say. They made it to the police station and the woman took them into a small interrogation room. Gina's heart was going like a jack-hammer and she was pretty sure she'd have an aneurysm if she was under much more pressure today.

All-in-all, the questioning session was pretty brief. Gina's photo was copied on a flash drive and downloaded to the police database, and they were free to go. For a while they just stood outside the department, blinking in the dusky darkness and trying to get their bearings straight.

"Where's the Pokémon Center?" Gina wondered aloud.

"I dunno," Orion said. "We should ask someone."

Jason made a half-hearted joke about _real_ men not needing directions, but they were all too tired to laugh much. Eventually they made their way to the Center, which turned out to be a very short distance away. They checked in, dropped off their Pokémon, and grabbed the first seats they could find. For a while they just zoned out.

Gina realized somewhere in a meandering train of thought that she hadn't really looked at the picture of the goatee man in any detail yet. She'd been too busy. She called it up on her PokéDex and enlarged it as much as she could, squinting at the now-pixely things clutched in his hand. They looked sort of like rocks. _Moon stones, perhaps?_

When her Dex buzzed in her hands she freaked out and almost dropped it. Peering down at the screen, she saw that it was a text message from Professor Drake. The sneak preview said: _Gina? What happened? _She opened it in full and scanned the contents.

_Gina? What happened? Amaris told me you were with the Cerulean City Police Dept?_

Gina groaned. She stared at her Dex for a second, then typed up a reply. _I'm fine. My friends and I were being questioned about an incident we saw. _She hit send before another horrifying thought occurred to her. Lightning-quick she typed up another message: _You didn't tell Mom did you?_

Professor Drake wrote back quickly. _No, I didn't. Wanted to verify with you first. What incident?_

Gina breathed a sigh of relief, then thought about how to word this. She knew calling him would be quicker, but she somehow didn't feel like it. What resulted was a huge block of text.

_My two friends and I were in Mt Moon on our way to Cerulean. 3 guys were harassing another guy and we called 21 on them. 3 guys bolted, but the victim was still there. He had weird stuff on him and was acting totally strange. Here's a pic… maybe you know what those rocks are? Anyway he ran off too and when the police arrived we had to go with them to the station for questioning, then they let us go._

She attached the photo file of goatee man and hit send. She wasn't really expecting Professor Drake to answer right away, but when fifteen minutes went by and he didn't even acknowledge that the message had gone through alright, she began to wonder if it had gotten lost in cyberspace.

Gina glanced up at the brothers. Orion was zoning out at the table and Jason looked ready to nod off against the booth. At first, Gina was going to follow suit, but then a bright red flag she had stored away for later sprang up in her mind.

She cleared her throat to get their attention, then spoke up. "So… um, what was with lying back there?"

Orion frowned for a moment, not remembering. It was actually Jason who spoke up first.

"It's a long story, Gina." Jason did turn to Orion though, a light frown on his face as well. "Bro, you really need the fake name, still?"

Orion had never looked more uncomfortable. "It's… yeah, I do." Jason's expression became bleak and worried, a look that was not good on him at all. Orion back-pedaled. "It's really, it's not as bad as it seems. I'll explain tomorrow, okay?"

Gina looked away, not wanting to intrude, but Orion put his hand on hers briefly to get her attention.

"To you, too. You're a friend and you've probably been confused about this for a while. You deserve to know."

Gina felt touched, but uncomfortable. "I'm sorry I asked, really. You don't have to tell me."

"It's fine," Orion said, glancing at Jason. Jason also nodded to Gina and managed a tired smile.

"Stop bein' such a girl," he said, and she kicked him lightly under the table.

"I'm bushed," Orion said suddenly, getting up. "Really need to go pass out."

"God, me too," Gina said, at the same time Jason said "sleeeeeeep."

"See you in the morning, guys." Orion smiled at his two companions, and they smiled back.

"Night. Hope there's nothing exciting waiting for you in your room. Knowing our luck it's probably Mewtwo."

Halfway to her room, Gina got her final text message from Professor Drake. She had been expecting a bunch of questions, or perhaps a mass message to all the new trainers with the photo of the man attached. All his text said was: _thank you._


	17. Chapter 17 Jason

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 15: Civic Duty

(Jason Fremont)

The following morning Jason woke up unsettlingly early. It was only ten, a time of day he normally never got to see. Unsure why he was up and apparently unable to fall back asleep, he settled for zoning out at the wall opposite his bed. Time sludged by until his watch made a tiny beep to announce that an hour had elapsed and it was now eleven o' clock.

Well, that was better, anyway. Jason got to his feet, grabbed a pair of cargo pants, and headed to his shower.

While under the hot spray Jason contemplated the possible repercussions of telling Gina the truth about his family. He had no idea why Orion had left Vermilion, but figured Orion wouldn't skip town for no reason. He was acting weird for sure. Jason had admittedly spent a lot of time away from his brother, but he knew suspicious activity when he saw it. Orion was hiding something. From the way he seemed so reluctant to talk to their mom, it had to have something to do with their dad.

It had been about three weeks since Jason had done more than send her brief text messages and the guilt was starting to rear its head. He longed to tell her he had found Orion; he loathed lying, even a lie of omission. Orion's general reluctance to talk to their mother, though, stopped him. Jason didn't want to push the subject, even if he didn't understand.

He stepped out from under the spray, killed the water, and dried off half-heartedly. It was 11:30 now, the time he normally woke up if left to his own devices. He was starting to drag and wondered if he could sneak out to get an iced coffee without Orion noticing.

Gina was in the lobby, wincing as she stretched out the muscles in her neck. She spotted him as soon as he entered the room and nodded to him in greeting as he made his way over.

"Morning," she said.

"Morning. Sore?

"_Oh_ yeah. You?"

"Freakin' tired."

"Where's Orion?" she asked, switching to stretch out her arms now.

Jason shrugged. "Not sure. He's not in the Center?"

"Not unless he's still asleep."

"Hah, unlikely."

The two sat in silence for a while until the sound of Jason's stomach growling broke it. Gina stifled a laugh and Jason grinned.

"You eat?"

"Not yet. Let's go get something."

It seemed to be shaping up to be a pretty peaceful morning, which Jason actually approved of after yesterday's excitement. They hadn't taken more than four steps outside the Center when that changed.

"Hey! Ikeda!"

"Aw, _crap._"

Jason barely remembered "Ikeda" as being Gina's last name. He glanced around for the source of the shout, but Gina on the other hand had frozen in place, closing her eyes in what looked like dull horror. Jason's eyes found the redhead nephew of the professor—he could not for the life of him remember his name again.

"Gina!" the redhead called again, an interesting smile coming to his face. Jason was pretty sure it was not a friendly one, though he looked amused.

At first Jason was convinced Gina was going to completely ignore him. She was facing away, a hard, calculating expression on her face even though it was obvious there was no escape. Jason looked between the two of them quite obviously, one eyebrow raised high. Tact and subtlety were just not his strong points.

The guy made his way over. Gina turned to face him with a plastic smile. "Amaris."

"So, how did you manage to get in trouble with the law already?"

Gina rolled her eyes. "For your information, we were giving our account about an incident we witnessed in Mt. Moon."

Amaris' look of amusement faltered for a moment. He seemed genuinely surprised. "That? Huh, I read about that in the paper this morning. So you were the New Trainer Initiate they were talking about?

Gina did a double-take that matched the one Jason also did. "We were in the paper?"

"Who's your friend?" Amaris interjected, giving Jason a one-over with a raised eyebrow, as if he was skeptical of him already. Jason instantly disliked this guy. Amaris smirked at Jason's cargos. "Just to let you know, you lost part of your pants along the way."

Jason made a face at Amaris. "Funny guy," he said to Gina.

Amaris tilted his head to the side, his antagonistic look shifting into a thoughtful one. "Ah, of course," he said. With that he turned away and went back to completely ignoring Jason, apparently not needing an answer about his identity. Jason was slightly baffled, but before he could ponder that, Amaris continued. "Well, what are you waiting for? Too busy fighting crime for a trainer battle?"

Gina glared at him and squared off at once. It took Jason a second to realize what was happening, but he backed off from their makeshift arena, his eyebrows raising. Well, at least this would be an interesting show.

Without a word Gina sent out Nidoran. Amaris had chosen what must be his starter, a Squirtle. The two Pokémon regarded one another evenly, unblinking and poised for their commands.

"Ladies first," Amaris said, smiling. It confused Jason a little that he was suddenly making a polite gesture out of nowhere, but Gina flushed red and seemed to take it as a grave insult.

"Screw you, Drake."

Jason's eyebrows were certainly traveling far and wide today. They shot back up his forehead. He had never heard Gina this angry before and was honestly a little surprised that she was capable of it. Expecting Amaris to react with anger, Jason was even _more _confused when Amaris' grin only grew.

"As you wish. Water Gun!"

The Squirtle reared back ever so slightly; Nidoran crouched low, waiting. A second later a short stream of high-pressure water issued from the Water-type's mouth, and Nidoran rolled to the side, avoiding most of the water. Gina, however, was not so lucky.

"—freakin'—_ugh_," Gina growled in a halting way, shaking copious amounts of water from her jeans. Amaris burst out laughing.

"Wow. You stand behind your Pokémon when it's up against a Water-type? How dumb can—"

"Poison Sting!" Gina interrupted, the command coming out more like a snarl. Nidoran leaped forward with surprising ferocity, something that was a little out-of-character for the normally peaceful rodent. Jason figured she could sense how deeply infuriated her trainer was.

The Squirtle was not quite able to dodge the blow. Nidoran's barbs bit at Squirtle's skin, and painful-looking red marks appeared. Jason took a moment to marvel at the incredibly though skin Pokémon had, knowing he would have a lot more than red marks if a Nidoran decided to assault him like that. The Squirtle glowered at Nidoran, and Amaris' next order of "Tackle!" was executed at once, before Nidoran had time to retreat.

Nidoran tumbled awkwardly across the grass, twisting some of her limbs in what looked like a very painful jumble. Jason saw Gina wince.

"Double Kick!" she ordered. Jason leaned forward with interest. He had not seen this attack successfully yet; it had been tried and failed on a few Zubat in Mt. Moon, who had a nasty habit of flying out of the way.

Nidoran charged at Squirtle, who attempted to run to the left. Nidoran was quicker though, and changed direction to follow it. She leaped into the air and turned to the side, landing four harsh strikes right to Squirtle's head. The turtle toppled over and rolled, retreating momentarily into its shell. Amaris seemed embarrassed for one second, but the look vanished quickly under a cool exterior. Gina beamed.

"Return," Amaris said, giving Squirtle verbal warning before calling it back to its Pokéball. Red light surrounded the Pokémon and Gina frowned.

"Swapping out?" she asked. "Or is he done?"

"That's for you to find out, I guess," Amaris said smugly. The next Pokémon he sent out was a Pidgey. Gina visibly grimaced at this.

Still, she stuck to her guns. Jason couldn't blame her—her other option was Charmander, and he figured Amaris would just send Squirtle right back out for that. Her last choice was a Pidgey versus Pidgey battle, which might end up just as ungainly. Jason made a mental note to catch a hundred Pokémon stat so he would never have this limitation problem.

"Poison Sting!" Gina ordered, but the attack missed by quite a bit. It was the same problem she'd had in Mt. Moon with the Zubats. Nidoran took a bad hit with Gust (which covered Gina's wet jeans in dirt as well.) Jason hissed softly under his breath; Nidoran looked terrible now. He didn't have his Dex out, but he figured that would be what constituted a "critical hit." Clearly frustrated, Gina recalled Nidoran and sent out her own Pidgey.

Amaris sighed. "I'm only seeing three Pokémon on your belt. Is this really all you've caught this whole time?" He shook his head as if legitimately disappointed, then shouted, "Sand Attack!"

Jason had just enough foresight to shut his eyes and cover his face. Dirt whipped harshly against his skin and when he trusted himself to look he was glad to see that Gina too had covered her eyes. No one really mentioned this part of battling in the hypothetical New Trainer Manual: often times when your Pokémon was attacked, you felt the brunt of it, too. Gina's hair, normally difficult, was now an absolute wreck.

She ordered Pidgey to Tackle, but it missed by an embarrassing margin. Jason winced as Amaris' own Pidgey hit Gina's with its infamous critical-hit Gust and knocked Pidgey out of the air. Pidgey sailed right back into the game next turn, though, and successfully landed a Tackle on the other bird. They cawed out at each other, squabbling briefly before returning to fly near their trainers.

Jason expected another devastating attack from the World's Buffest Pidgey on Amaris' next turn, but what he did surprised him more than anything else all day.

"Hope you don't mind," he said to Gina, and removed another Pokéball from his belt. Instead of recalling Pidgey, though, Amaris let out another Pokémon. Gina opened her mouth to protest, but Amaris held up a hand.

"Just so he can watch," he explained. "He could use the experience… though I'd hardly call _this_ a battle."

The red light dissolved and in its place was a small gold and brown Pokémon with sleepy eyes and strange, knobby limbs. Jason's mouth fell open and he didn't bother trying to hide it. Amaris caught sight of this and laughed out loud.

"Looks like your friend likes my Abra," he commented to Gina, who shot Jason a betrayed look. Jason mouthed "sorry," but immediately went back to staring longingly at the Psychic Pokémon… which appeared to be struggling not to nod off.

"Your turn," Amaris commented lightly to Gina.

Gina tore her eyes away from the Abra and shouted "Gust!"

Amaris threw his arm up in front of his face just in time, and the fabric of his long-sleeved gray shirt whipped around in high-speed winds a second later. His Pidgey was blown backwards and missed tumbling into Amaris by a few inches. Jason frowned. Though Amaris' Pidgey had been blown off course, no real damage seemed to have been done to it. Jason seriously wondered why neither trainer was using Potions. Perhaps it was a pride thing.

"Gust again! Clearly you need to learn what a good one looks like!"

It was no contest, really; Gina's Pidgey was blasted from the sky and Gina herself nearly fell over backwards. She recalled her Pokémon at once, and with barely a millisecond between actions, sent out Charmander.

Charmander lifted his head, and the second he saw Amaris the nubby wing bones on his back shot straight up. He hissed at him and snorted steam from his nostrils.

"Does that count as your first attack, Gina? Growl?" Amaris teased.

"_No!_" she spat, her fists clenched at her sides.

"I suppose I'll let you get away with that one. I sort of feel bad for you; figured your Charmander would learn to behave at some point."

"Ember!" Gina shouted, and for one moment Jason and she were rewarded with the sight of Amaris' teal eyes widening briefly in shock.

Pidgey did not like fire. It did not like fire at all. It flapped insanely in wake of the heat and dropped low to avoid it, cringing near the ground and panting with exhaustion. Some of its feathers were smoking. Amaris scoffed and recalled it.

"Well, you know what's next," he said matter-of-factly, and sure enough, in the next moment Squirtle was back out.

Jason yanked out his Dex and peered through the viewfinder. Charmander, of course, was at full health, and Squirtle was at a little less than half. Vainly, Jason crossed his fingers for a one-hit K.O.

"Ember!" Gina shouted again. Squirtle balked away from the steam, smoke and bursts of small flame, squinting in the heat and retreating slightly into his shell. The shell took most of the damage, looking a little singed by the time Charmander was done. When the heat waves cleared, Jason's stomach sank.

"Water Gun," Amaris stated, crossing his arms.

It was all over. Jason had never seen a Charmander hit with water before, but it was truly a sad sight to behold. Steam rose from the lizard's skin at once, and the flame at his tail spat and crackled furiously. Whenever water drops hit the flame it seemed to cause Charmander immense pain. Charmander rolled to escape the water, but Squirtle had impeccable aim and followed it. When Amaris' attack was done Charmander was on all fours in a steadily growing puddle, wincing and cringing.

Gina closed her eyes for a long moment. Jason had no idea what she must be thinking. She didn't give Charmander warning that he was going to be recalled, which was probably a good thing. Jason doubted he would have wanted to give up. Amaris made a "_tch_," sound as Gina attached Charmander's Pokéball to her belt once more.

"You're gonna take on the Cerulean Leader with that lineup?" Amaris asked, raising his eyebrows so high that they disappeared into his rust-colored bangs. "I'd think twice before attempting that one."

Gina said nothing to him, but Amaris didn't seem to need a response. She started fishing in her pockets for marks to hand over, but Amaris rolled his eyes. "Don't bother. I don't want your money. Use it to pay a Daycare to raise your Pokémon properly."

"_Wow_," Jason said, somewhat surprised that anyone could be this much of a jerk. "Back off, will you?"

Amaris ignored him again and quirked an eyebrow at Gina. "Threatening boyfriend you've got there. I'm scared."

Gina was just staring at Amaris, her hands clenched into fists. Her silence actually worried Jason much more than if she had been yelling.

"Catch ya later," Amaris said abruptly, smirking at her and heading off towards the other side of town. Gina stared hard at his back and Jason was peripherally surprised that Amaris didn't suddenly burst into flame from the sheer intensity of that gaze. After a tense moment, Jason spoke.

"Hey—"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Jason had been about to try to change the subject by remarking about the awesomeness that was Abra, but for once he decided that this was truly not the time to say anything more than "hey."

* * *

Jason was a good friend. He resisted it for a whole hour. Finally though, he couldn't take it anymore.

"Dude, he had an _Abra!_"

Gina cringed at the word "he" and Jason took a brief second to marvel over the incredible sway this Amaris guy seemed to have over his friend's mood. Even a two-letter pronoun could become a trigger word.

"Abra. Come on. You have to admit Abra is in the top five most badass Pokémon of all time."

"Abras have been ruined for me forever," Gina said stubbornly and morosely. "Also, Abra doesn't even make my top 100."

"_What?_"

"All Abra does is Teleport!"

Jason had to amend his statement. "Okay, Abra turns into Kadabra, which turns into Alakazam, and _that _Pokémon is in the top five most badass Pokémon of all time list!"

"Meh. _Maybe_ top ten."

"Whaaat?"

"What can I say?" Gina said, shrugging. Jason knew she must still be in a dark mood, since even that simple gesture was harsh. "Guess I'm not a Psychic person."

"But… those are like, the best type ever."

There was a scoff from beside him and Jason looked down guiltily at Bulbasaur, who was in the middle of his Poké-stretching routine.

"Besides you, of course," he said. "Clearly Bulbasaur-type is the most awesome type."

Bulbasaur seemed to know he was being condescended. He smacked Jason's shin with one vine and Jason yelped.

Gina managed a shadow of a chuckle at that. "Man…" she said, rubbing her face. "Where the heck is your brother?"

"Dunno," Jason said. "Maybe he's avoiding 'the talk.'"

Gina blanched. "Oh man. I _told_ him he doesn't have to tell me…! He knows he doesn't have to tell me! Right?"

Jason waved his hands in the air. "Joking! Joking!"

Gina gave him a withering look. "Not funny."

"Yeah," Jason agreed, smiling sympathetically. "Anyway, I'm sure he's around. It's only like 1:15, he's probably eating lunch somewhere."

Jason paused, debating whether or not to bring up Abras again. After another five minutes of sitting quietly, he couldn't resist.

"Come catch an Abra with me? I hear they're in the area."

Predictably, Gina groaned. She didn't seem to be able to think of any real reason not to go though, and shrugged. "Yeah, okay. Let me just get my team back and we'll go."

Jason decided his enormous grin must look pretty dumb or something; it finally succeeded in making Gina smile.

* * *

Gina and Jason had been crashing around in the underbrush near Route 24 for about an hour when she came across the sign. She flagged Jason down and pointed it out, a frown on her face. Jason skimmed it, then read it again, slower.

_Remember! Register your ABRA. For more details, visit your local Pokémon Center._

"'Register your Abra?'" Jason asked, frowning. "The heck does that mean?"

"No idea," Gina said. "We should probably figure out what that's all about."

"Nah," Jason said, immediately switching train of thought to more interesting things; namely, catching an Abra first so he could register it later—whatever that meant.

"Don't you think—"

"_Shh!_" Jason said, crouching low. Bulbasaur sniffed the air in the direction Jason was looking, but a second later a Spearow took flight and screeched at them. Jason made a sound of frustration and sicced Bulbasaur on it. He grumbled to himself when that battle was done and Bulbasaur sat down with his eyes closed.

"Is Sleep Powder even working properly?" Gina asked, sounding dubious. "I mean, have you tried it on a Pokémon yet?"

Sleep Powder was Jason's ace-in-the-hole for getting the flighty Abra to stay put. "No. I'm sure it's fine. Right?" he asked Bulbasaur, who ignored him. Jason sighed again. "Why the heck does Abra have to be so rare?"

Gina shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe because life hates you."

"That's got to be it," Jason agreed.

It was past three when they made their way back to the Center. Jason had finally caught a Spearow, but had earned himself numerous beak wounds in the process. The Abra hunt had not been fruitful.

Orion was waiting for them as they pushed open the doors to the Center, but it was not with his normal friendly smile. Jason's face set into an expression of wide-eyed worry the second he saw him.

"Thank god you're back," Orion said, motioning for them to follow him. Gina and Jason looked at each other briefly before jogging after Orion to his room.

Orion slid in, ushered them in after him, and closed the door. Then he pulled a newspaper off the table and showed the front page to Jason. "I just saw this literally five minutes ago," he said, pointing down at the bottom.

The article in question read: "_New Trainer Initiates perform civic duty on Mt. Moon_."

"Oh, yeah," Gina said, reading over his shoulder. "… Amaris, told us about that." She hesitated on his name as if it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Orion shook his head, actually looking a little sick now. "No, the third paragraph down."

Jason's eyes skimmed lower and one name jumped out at him and froze the blood in his veins.

_Orion Fremont and his two young traveling companions, one of whom is his younger brother, reported the crime yesterday evening from a PokéDex. "It makes me feel good to know young people have a sense of responsibility," restaurant owner Flinn McManus commented…_

Jason stopped reading and threw the paper on Orion's bed, feeling an icy hand clutching his insides already. Gina looked from one face to the next and seemed to not want to ask her next question.

"They… figured out your real name then?" she asked.

"Must have," Orion said miserably. "I should have known better. They're the freaking police. Of course they'd have records." He slumped down on his bed and rested his head on his hands.

"Why the heck did they put our names in the paper? Shouldn't we be like, on witness protection or something?" Jason demanded, running a hand through his messy spikes and turning them into a random blond mess. Suddenly Amaris' recognition of him earlier in the day made perfect sense.

Gina was quiet for a moment. "So, what does this mean for you…?"

Orion didn't seem to have heard her; he was still sitting on the edge of the bed, staring into space. Jason was the one who answered. "It means that Dad now knows exactly where we are."


	18. Chapter 18 Gav

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 18: Sounds Crazy

(Gav Harrison)

"I'm telling you, it was a _human_ voice. Plus, there was a Pokémon up there. We heard it as clear as day."

Gav was keeping quiet during this particular interrogation, but he figured Victoria was doing enough talking for all four of them. Overall, he couldn't exactly say that things were going well here.

They had been in this room for a good hour now, and the police chief still seemed to have a hard time listening to the strange story of a fifteen-year-old girl. Gav was honestly surprised that Victoria hadn't slaughtered someone yet.

"Okay, I think we've got enough of your statement," the man said at last. "Thanks for coming in, and we'll be following up with you if we need any more information."

Some kind of intense struggle seemed to go on in Victoria. It was subtle, but Gav was already starting to tell when she was biting back a remark. The bridge of her nose twitched ever so slightly. "Right," she said, and got up at once. Beth followed obediently and Kaylee and Gav took their cues as well. They said nothing, deliberately remaining as boring and meek as possible as they filed out of the place.

Ida, the receptionist of the Pokémon Tower, was still in the lobby. She waved to them as they passed her by. "Come on by tomorrow, if you like. I'll let you know if there's anything new."

"Thank you," Beth said, graciously. She was probably the only one of the four who could stand niceties right now.

Once the group had successfully removed themselves from the police department, one kind of tension eased while another took its place. During the interrogation Gav and Kaylee had had no choice but to surrender their full names to the man questioning them. He had reacted predictably; there was the momentary pause, the double-take, and the all-too-familiar, "Harrison as in Brock? As in Ando Harrison's kids?"

The humid summer night air pressed in on the teens as they tried not to talk about what they were inevitably going to talk about. Again, it was Victoria who breached the subject.

"So," she said quietly. "Brock's grandchildren?"

Gav and Kaylee were quiet for a moment, then both nodded. Beth opened her mouth to say something, then stopped. They had reached the Pokémon Center before she said it.

"I can see why you don't want anyone knowing. It's got to be rough, having famous parents and grandparents."

Gav shook his head. "It's not that," he said, not wanting anyone to believe for even one second that he or Kaylee was ashamed of their family. "It's complicated."

He regretted those words the second he said them. Victoria narrowed her eyes in confusion and Beth's eyes grew wide with curiosity.

"Oh?" was all Victoria said.

"Yeah," Gav responded.

They grabbed a booth at the Center and ordered hot drinks. Two teas and two coffees were brought out to them moments later. Gav and Victoria apparently both took their coffee black, whereas Beth and Kaylee doctored up their tea with insane amounts of sugar and honey. Someone made a brief comment about this interesting tidbit; Gav didn't really catch which of them it was.

It had been a very long time since anyone had spoken his father's or his grandfather's name aloud to him. He'd been told as a child that everyone dealt with grief differently. He figured his method was general avoidance mixed with reverence. It was strange; he could barely remember his father, but he was completely happy to assure anyone who asked that he had been a flawless, strong, loving man.

His grandfather, on the other hand, had been a much larger part of their lives. Kaylee had been a toddler when their parents died, but the loss of Brock had hit her just as hard as it hit him. Sometimes, when they could handle it, they would reminisce about him together around their campfires, remembering stupid things he would say or little jokes he'd play on them as kids. It wasn't often that they did this, but when they did, Gav could not help feeling a surge of pure love for his sister. Without her to share these memories with he was not sure where he would be. He didn't really want to think about it.

Victoria traded a brief look with Beth which Gav barely caught. Beth stood up a moment later and said to Kaylee, "Come, lets go look at the desserts."

Kaylee seemed confused by this sudden interest in sweets for maybe a second. Then the prospect of sugar beckoned her and she gave Gav's shoulder a brief squeeze. "Be right back," she said, and extracted herself from their booth to follow Beth. Gav watched the two make their way to the Pokémon Center's late night bakery counter before turning back to Victoria.

"Did you just use some psychic girl power to tell your sister to take mine away?" he asked, only half joking.

"I'm good like that," Victoria said, before plowing on. "I have more questions for you."

He'd been expecting this. "Ah-huh." He took a sip of his coffee just to have something to do.

"Your parents died a pretty long time ago," Victoria said, with all the delicacy of a hacksaw. Gav actually blinked rapidly at that statement as if it had hit him in the face. He'd never quite been addressed like that and had no clue what to make of it. She was continuing though, so he didn't have much time for reflection. "And I think that you believe TR had something to do with that."

If the last statement had been like something hitting him in the face, this one was like being run over by a bus. Gav stopped drinking and put his mug down. He stared at Victoria, unblinkingly, and she stared back. At the worst possible moment, Kaylee came jogging back.

"Want an apple fritter?" she asked him. They'd been a childhood favorite of his, but food was the farthest thing in the world from his mind right now.

"No thanks, Kay," he said, and she nodded before heading back to Beth.

Gav decided he should say something before they were interrupted again, but he still hadn't quite gathered his wits. As a result, what came out was, "What do you think about that?"

Victoria was much sharper than was convenient. "I don't know yet. I'd like to know why you think that."

"What business is it of yours?" he responded back coolly and quickly.

That actually gave her pause. While she was pausing their sisters came back, talking happily amongst themselves. They pulled Gav and Victoria into their talk, which was about the roots of words, of all things. Kaylee asserted that "plasma" and "ectoplasm" suggested that the root "plas" must refer to the strange motion of fire and ghosts, but Beth thought it meant something that was neither solid, liquid, or gas. Victoria and Gav, after careful consideration, made a judgment call to side more with Beth, which of course sent Kaylee into fake-hysterics.

"Man though, did you _see_ those things?" she asked the table at large a little while later. Gav had to chuckle at the obvious question. "They were wicked! That was so classic though, when Cubone hit that one with Bone Club! Everyone stopped and was like—" she made a shocked face and laughter echoed around the table. "And you two," she paused for maybe half a second to regard the sisters, "Your Pokémon were on it! You didn't say you were such great trainers!"

Beth blushed down to her hair roots and smiled beatifically. "Thanks… we try."

Gav and Victoria must have reverted to their serious-business facial expressions in unison, because Kaylee said a moment later, "You guys okay?"

Victoria worked her face into something that better resembled innocent shock. "Okay? Am I okay? We just got attacked by about a hundred Ghost Pokémon, had to run for our lives down six flights of god-forsaken stairs, then got interrogated for an hour by some complete idiot." She paused, then broke into a genuine smile. Gav was momentarily stunned at how good it looked on her. He was pretty sure he'd never seen her use one before. "But, I'm alive. And I suppose it could be worse."

The evening went on in a generally pleasant way, occasionally punctuated with peals of laughter when someone (usually Kaylee) said something particularly funny. Often times though it was Beth's laugh that really got everyone struggling to breathe, as the Water trainer had the most hilarious "no-no-stop-you're-killing-me!" face and hand gestures. The Center remained very accommodating to their late night dining, except for an old man who had overheard them and told them they shouldn't have crossed the ghosts of Pokémon. Beth had tried to explain to the man that they were Gastlies, but he'd simply shook his head and walked away, muttering "tasteless instrumental," under his breath. It was so absurd and random that the four of them burst into laughter and could barely stop themselves five minutes later.

Yet in spite of the admittedly great time he was having, the future conversation between him and Victoria was hanging over his head. It surfaced occasionally when he caught her eye and they would look away from one another at once, not wanting to deal with it just then. Gav had a feeling she felt bad for bringing it up so bluntly, but the more he thought about it, the more he appreciated her mannerisms. He'd had enough of the "we're so sorry," and the "our thoughts are with you" and even the inane, "were you sad?" Victoria treated him like an equal to herself, and she clearly esteemed herself as capable of dealing with things. It was a nice change of pace.

He just had no idea what he should tell her about their past.

They spent the rest of their night talking and relaxing, winding down and allowing themselves to grow sleepy naturally. No one was in an antagonizing mood. Gav supposed a near-death experience would do that to people. For the most part the atmosphere was light and comfortable.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he had a suspicion he knew who it was. He waited until Beth was busy telling an animated story about her surprisingly snobby Poliwag and Kaylee was completely absorbed listening to it. Then he snuck a peek at his phone.

_That was incredibly blunt and tactless of me. I'm sorry._

Gav glanced at Victoria, but she was watching Beth with a small smile on her face. It was clearly about the hundredth time she had heard this story, but Gav knew that smile. Something about siblings made incessantly repetitive things like that okay. He typed up his message with his phone in his pocket and hit "send."

_You don't have to apologize. Trust me, you're a nice change from everyone else who's mentioned my parents._

Her message returned quickly and Gav smiled to himself. Apparently she could text without looking at the screen, too.

_Still. I understand if you don't feel like sharing your life story with me. It wasn't my place to ask, like you said._

Gav frowned briefly, but Kaylee said, "What's up?" and he had to engage her in talk to throw her off the scent of the text conversation going on under the table. When she was distracted again he wrote his last message to Victoria.

_I reacted a bit quickly. Honestly I can see why you're curious, and it's okay. I know Kay already wants to tell you and Beth our social security numbers. Talk to you later tonight? Kay usually sleeps early._

Her final message brought a smile to his face and he managed to catch her eye while it was still there.

_Beth too. Frickin miracle she's still awake. If she goes narcoleptic and face-plants in her food don't be alarmed. Meet you in the lobby around one._

* * *

Gav was a little late to the meeting in the lobby. Kaylee had been far more hyped up than he'd thought and hadn't wanted to leave his room to go to hers until a little past one. The weariness had hit her all at once though, like a Vileplume spewing out Sleep Powder. She'd barely managed to stagger her way out.

Victoria was waiting for him with a cup of what turned out to be hot water. He found this a little unusual, but according to her, anything other than that would keep her up all night. The obligatory awkward silence stretched after their obligatory small talk.

Gav sighed. "Alright well, here it is. Kaylee wouldn't mind me telling you this, but it still feels a little odd to keep it from her. So, just so you know, I'm going to tell her about this talk tomorrow."

Victoria nodded. "Understood."

"You can mention it to Beth, if you feel like it."

Victoria hesitated, but nodded. "Alright. I probably will, then."

For some reason, Gav felt strangely small. It wasn't a feeling he normally got, to say the least. Gav was pretty big for his age, six feet tall and broad in the shoulder for a sixteen-year-old. He had been the head of his family for the past four years and Kaylee often said Responsibility was his middle name. Well, that or Boring.

Now though there was a strange, constricting feeling in his chest that left him feeling cold. He vaguely wished he had a cup of hot water like Victoria's.

She seemed to read his mind. "Go get yourself something to drink. I'm not quite awake yet."

She'd said it to let him retreat for a few minutes and preserve his manliness. It surprised him, but he supposed it shouldn't have. Just because Kaylee normally had the subtlety of a punch to the face didn't mean everyone did, but there it was. He never spoke to anyone but Kaylee, and sometimes Armstrong from the Gym. It had never really bothered him until now.

Gav returned with his own cup of hot water and Victoria smiled and called him a poser. He took a sip and found that, oddly enough, it helped a lot. It was still a while before he could properly form sentences.

"Kay's about four years younger than me, and she was two when our parents died," he explained. "You probably know that Ando Harrison was the Pewter City Gym Leader for about eight years after Brock retired." Victoria nodded. "Well, that was my dad." Of course she already knew that tidbit of information. Gav shook his head to clear it. He felt jittery. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize," Victoria said simply. It sounded like a command and wasn't really said with any kindness or softness of tone. It made him feel immeasurably better.

"They were out at an excavation at the Rock Tunnel. My parents," he clarified unnecessarily. "They say it as a cave-in, but no one else was hurt and the circumstances around it were all wrong. But, y'know, when people close to you die, you always sort of want to make up some kind of special situation around it, right? Like they had to go into hiding and aren't really dead, or stuff like that. I was barely old enough to form a conspiracy theory at that age, and I didn't really believe it when I got older."

He shook his head. It was too easy to slip into bitterness and tangents when it came to this subject, which was easily the most sensitive point of his life.

"Thing is, their cause of death was not widely published. That was the first weird thing, to me, besides the strange cave-in. If it was an accident I didn't know why they didn't just come out and say exactly what happened."

Victoria frowned. "What _did _they say? I have to confess I barely knew about this myself."

"Yeah," Gav agreed. "Not widely covered at all. They just said that Ando and Mariko Harrison had passed away, really. A few people figured it was an accident, but others thought it was an illness... no one was really sure that they were at the Rock Tunnel at all, only our close friends and family. There were a lot of different theories flying around. I don't even know how most of the rumors and false information got started."

Victoria had no real readable expression on her face and for some reason that made Gav nervous again. He took a sip of his water, noticing that it was becoming less hot.

"Our grandfather, Brock, came out of retirement at 58 years old to head the Gym again for six years. He died four years ago; I was twelve, Kay was eight. They called that one a car crash." He stared down at the table. "Same story as my parents. Impossibly slow police response. Even slower medical teams. Dodgy reports, differing eye witness accounts. The ones with the really weird stories—you know, the ones who claimed they saw Brock in a battle with violent, evolved Pokémon—those few were the handful who went missing and died of heart attacks and strokes mere days after they gave their accounts."

Gav wanted to chance a glance at Victoria, but decided to just finish his water instead. It was lukewarm now. "Kaylee and I know of a lot of other families who have been… who can relate. We didn't realize what had happened all at once, though. It took us up until last year to be completely sure, but we know the truth now."

"That their deaths were not accidental and... and they're being covered up, in a way?"

"Basically."

He was finally done—done with what he could tell, anyway. It was already more than he had ever told anyone. Finally, he looked up at Victoria.

Her expression was no longer blank. She looked mildly ill. Her green eyes were hard and still and bore straight into his.

"Sounds crazy, huh?" he admitted, pushing away from the table. "That's all."

He was moving away when she grabbed his arm. He glanced down at her, feeling ambivalent and weird, but what she said unloosened the knot of complex emotion in his core a little.

"It's a lot to absorb," she admitted. "But I do not think you're crazy."

* * *

Everyone woke up pretty late the following morning. Kaylee and Beth were normally early risers, but this time all four trainers dragged themselves out of bed no earlier than ten a.m.

Beth zombied her way over to the tea selection at the Center's beverage table and Victoria slipped into a booth seat across from Gav and Kaylee. It was an unspoken expectation that they would all eat breakfast together today and no one seemed to mind.

"Caffeine," Gav grumbled as a good morning to her.

"Give me an IV drip," she grumbled back.

Kaylee was crippled with huge, jaw-cracking yawns to Gav's right, and only stopped to dig in to her bacon and eggs occasionally. Beth sat next to Victoria and stared sleepily down at the table.

The waiter who had brought Gav his coffee and Kaylee her food came over to them again. "Oh no!" he exclaimed, way too peppily for this early. "More sleepy-heads! What can I get you?"

"A waiter I don't want to kill," Victoria deadpanned. Gav had to struggle very hard not to burst out laughing. His guard was just not up today.

The waiter seemed to brush it off as pre-caffeine rage. "One coffee for you then!" he said. "And you?"

Beth groaned. "Sorry about her. She's got special needs." Victoria elbowed her and Beth did not react except to order the same thing that Kaylee had. They sat in morose, sleepy silence for a little longer.

Finally Beth seemed to snap out of it. "You know… much as you all probably don't want to be there, we should check out the Tower. Ida told us we should. Maybe she has a lead."

"Lead," Victoria mumbled, seeming to find that word funny. "You're right out of a detective novel." She sighed. "You're right though. I'm curious. Right after breakfast."

Kaylee and Gav murmured their sleepy consent.

* * *

"So Gav, what's the name short for? Gavin?"

"It's just Gav, I promise," Gav said, unable to keep the amused smile from his face. "When will you believe me?"

"When you show me a birth certificate," Victoria countered. "It's got to be short for something. If it's not Gavin, I bet it's something really embarrassing. Gavonater? Gavasaur? Gaveriel?"

Gav shuddered. "Gavasaur wouldn't be so bad."

Victoria opened her mouth.

"My name is not Gavasaur," he said quickly.

Kaylee found this conversation to be completely entertaining. She, of course, decided to be a sibling about it and worked against him. "Victoria, he'd kill me if I told you, so I can't, but he does have a full name. He hates it."

Gav rolled his eyes. "Kaylee… really? Why lie? What will this accomplish for you in life?"

"Tons of things!" she insisted, and Beth laughed at that while Victoria continued to throw out horrific Gav- names.

"Gavanova. Gavius Maximus. Gavollipop."

"… Gavollipop?"

"I don't know."

He started to feel weird when they got closer to the Tower. At first he thought it was the ghostly heebie jeebies acting up, or the memory of their harrying night. When he saw a young man at the receptionist's desk instead of Ida though, he knew it had been intuition.

Kaylee and he exchanged a look that spoke volumes of numb dread. Beth and Victoria did not understand yet. The sisters pushed their way in through the doors and, after a pause, Kaylee and Gav followed. It was like a train wreck.

"Hi," Victoria said simply, leaning against the counter. "My sister, friends and I were brutally assaulted by crazy Pokémon here yesterday, and the other receptionist, Ida, told us to—what?" Victoria said, cutting off her sarcastic recap at the bleak, morose look that came to the man's face.

"You must not have heard. It's not really in the news." Gav shut his eyes, but he could still hear the man speaking. "Ida had an accident last night in her home. We're not too sure what happened, but she lives alone so..." His voice got a little higher at the end of the sentence. The man cleared his throat before continuing. "She's in the hospital right now, but we're…" There was a pause, and Gav finally opened his eyes. The man had turned away. "I'm sorry I can't help you. Feel free to look around." He coughed into his hand, and Gav suspected he was struggling to keep his composure. "Just—not the sixth floor. Well, of course. You know why. Investigation."

Gav couldn't see the look on Victoria's face. He could only see the back of her red-haired head, but somehow her expression, her feeling was resonating deep within him already.

"Vee…" Beth whispered. "Let's just—"

Victoria turned around, but she didn't walk up the stairs or out the door. Instead she looked straight into Gav's eyes. Her expression was unreadable. He had no idea how long it lasted; time didn't work right just then.

A moment later Victoria had grabbed Beth's hand and pulled her quickly out the door, leaving Gav and Kaylee and the coughing receptionist behind.


	19. Chapter 19 Victoria

Pokémon Rose

Chapter 19: Things to Do Today

(Victoria Larson)

It was not enough to say that Victoria felt awful. She was fairly certain that no words had yet been invented to accurately describe how awful she felt.

In between living the next few days in fear, Beth and Victoria reverted back to tense silence. No one burst into their room in the Center to strangle them in their sleep and they were not attacked by masked assailants when they ventured outside. They didn't hear anything on the news about Ida, but asked around to hear how she was doing and if she would make a full recovery. It was still pretty touch-and-go from what they could tell, but no news was good news.

Well, usually. In this case, no news meant that this story wasn't being covered, and that just reminded Victoria about what Gav had told her that night; things, important things, were being covered up. Victoria wracked her brain to think if an accident like this would normally be in the news, but she couldn't remember. Eventually she decided to look up accidents and hospitalizations on the Center's computer and found a pretty fair number of stories from the Lavender area. Most of them were about little kids or house fires, but there were still stories about household accidents injuring and hospitalizing people. Most of those had to do with faulty products, though, and were immediately followed up by factory recalls and infuriated letters to the editor. Overall, Victoria's little research session didn't give her much to go off of.

They got new phones, finally. Victoria turned in her old, dilapidated cell and was upgraded to a flip-phone with speed dial, greater storage for text messaging, and a new ability that would pop up a picture of the person who was calling when they contacted her. She was not big on phones, but even she had to agree that it was pretty awesome. It was one of the few times she and Beth seemed interested in something in a while.

Beth and she were back to not really talking, but this time it wasn't due to a petty fight over deleting a phone number. Both of them were lost in their own worlds as those worlds shook and broke apart. Victoria could only guess what was going on in her sister's head and knew her sister could only guess at her thoughts as well. It would be better if they spoke, but she couldn't bring herself to.

She thought far too much over the next three weeks. She still saw Gav and Kaylee in the lobby, but they only nodded to one another from afar. She was sure that Gav had told Kaylee about their midnight discussion by now and it was certain that the siblings thought Victoria had been completely creeped out by them. Maybe they figured Victoria viewed them as bad luck. Maybe they thought she wanted nothing more to do with them. Maybe they just thought she was having a nervous breakdown.

That last one was closest to the truth.

Her thoughts tormented her during nights when she couldn't sleep. She'd remember the Fearow attack, the fake hunt for Beth's phone and the way Gav had stopped her from sitting on Weedles. Then the scene would change to the Pokémon Tower and the never-ending rooms of tombstones. "Taken from us by…" The strange sound was next, followed by the Gastlies and the face of Ida, the receptionist who had seemed to believe their story. The other receptionist's face came to view after hers, uncomfortable and bereft.

The image of Gav sitting across from her and staring intently at the Center table raced around her mind. Other times it floated, slow and painstaking. There was the way he had run his fingers across the mug (a nervous habit, she supposed), the way he had needed so many stops and pauses in his story to get control of himself, the way she had grabbed his arm and told him she didn't think he was crazy, and finally the way she had looked at him and dragged her sister away as if that was exactly what she thought he was.

One morning on some obscure day of her third week of ungainly thoughts and sleepless nights, Victoria decided to make a list. List-making, for some reason, brought her immense relief. Beth never understood it, but then again, her sister was always more of the "wing it by the seat of my pants" type of girl. Victoria preferred order.

She was unnecessarily quiet as she moved around their room searching for stationary and a pencil. Beth was the world's heaviest sleeper unless the sun was rising through the window, and Victoria had a feeling she could conduct a full-fledged Pokémon battle complete with blazing fire and flying rocks on the girl's bed without disturbing her.

She pulled open a drawer and yanked out a sheet of green paper and began looping letters onto it.

_Things to buy at the PokéMart:_

_1) Potion—whatever type they have (6)_

_2) Pokéball—whatever type they have (2)_

_3) Antidote (4)_

She paused and decided that was enough for today. She dragged her pen across the paper to divide it in two and carefully copied down new words.

_Things to do today:_

_1) Map out Route 10_

_2) Shower and pack_

Victoria tore that sheet off, set it aside, and stared blankly at the new one. Her first two lists had been easy. This one would suck, and would suck in multiple parts.

_Reasons why I am completely freaked out:_

_1) Receptionist has a terrifying, freakishly timed accident right after Gav tells me about other terrifying, freakishly timed accidents_

_2) Beth really likes them and if they are tied up in bad things she might end up hurt_

_3) Gav and Kaylee's parents and grandfather all wound up dead_

_4) Crazy Gastly attack and unexplainable noises in Pokémon Tower_

_5) No one believed our story_

_6) Slow and confusing police response mirrors Gav's story about his family_

_7) I am starting to care about them and don't want to see them hurt_

Victoria stared at that last item hard. After a moment she let out her breath. She hadn't realized she'd been holding it the entire time she'd been writing the list. She had probably broken a world record just now.

Very, very slowly, she wrote down the eighth item.

_8) I'm freaked out that I'd rather run away than admit I care and want to help_

It was soon followed by a ninth.

_9) Beth would jump at the chance to stick around with them for as long as they would have us. She won't help me make a logical choice. I am alone._

Victoria crumpled up her list and threw it in the trash can, but it had done its damage and its good for her. It was all out in the open. She concentrated on breathing and not panicking for a good twenty minutes. She knew she was losing her dark-before-the-dawn hours and wanted to be done with this before Beth woke up.

She tore off a new sheet of paper.

_Reasons I like Gav and Kaylee_

_1) Gav's wonderful conversation_

_2) Kaylee is hilarious_

_3) They make Beth extremely happy_

_4) We haven't had friends in a long time and they're good people_

_5) They're interesting, even if it's in a borderline illegal way_

That particular list was all too easy to write. Victoria had to cut herself off after a certain point. No real conclusion had been reached; she had known she liked them for a while. That was not really what was bothering her.

It was time for the last list.

_What is stopping me from asking them to stay around?_

_1) Danger: I have no idea what they are getting themselves into. — possible fix: ask them point-blank, make informed decision_

_2)_

_3)  
_

This list was the most confusing one of all. Victoria had numbered it prematurely, assuming she would have a lot more to say than that. When only her first item peered out at her from the page, looking quite lonely, her brow furrowed and stayed that way for many long minutes.

Beth stirred in the bed beside her. Victoria scribbled one last item on her list of things to do, then took off from the room.

_Things to do today:_

_1) Map out Route 10_

_2) Shower and pack_

_3) Talk to Gav and Kaylee_

* * *

Victoria was pleased to find that the PokéMart was already open. She'd expected to have to wait for at least an hour for the manager to come. Inside she purchased her items in a hurry as some guy that was standing behind her kept moving in too close. Thanking the clerk, she strode confidently out the door, projecting an air of cool indifference. Victoria had a foolproof policy about men; she didn't trust them as far as she could throw them. This was quite literal, too—she could probably throw a little boy a decent distance, and she trusted kids more than adults.

Beth often expressed the concern that Victoria would die an old maid, something that had Victoria rolling her eyes and asking Beth why _she_ wasn't going all boy-crazy. Beth's response was always the same: "I'm not getting a boyfriend until you do."

Gav, however, seemed an entirely different breed. He was the first guy Victoria could legitimately say she got along with (most of the time), which of course her list had told her. Perhaps she didn't want to date him, per se, but this was about as fond as she'd been of a male-creature since the time when their father had been infallible in her eyes.

The thought of Gav made her nervous all over again. A huge part of her could not believe that she was considering something this enormous. Victoria set her paper bag from the mart down on a vacated bench near the Center and sat down beside it. The wood was cold against her thighs and she wished she had thought to wear long jeans instead of dashing out the door in her gym shorts. She meant to just sit and stare at nothing, hoping her brain would relax, but that was too much to ask for. The circular arguments that had been chasing themselves around in her head all week caught up with her at once.

On one hand, it wasn't like Beth and she were really doing anything vital with their lives right now. They both wanted to get into apprenticeships at various Pokemon Gyms, but they couldn't even apply until they were 18, and probably wouldn't be accepted for years after that. They had time to kill, and for many long months, that was what they had been doing. Their Pokémon leveled up, painfully slowly, and from a training standpoint they could only grow stronger from getting regular experience. Regular experience was, of course, something they could get through battling with Gav and Kaylee.

On the other hand, Victoria knew very well that even if she asked Gav and Kaylee to join up with them, she could get rejected so fast her head would spin. Just because the siblings were nice, and funny, and had saved their hides numerous times did not mean they wanted travel companions. Rejection was not something Victoria dealt with well; like most instances of hurt, it curdled over into anger almost at once. She really hoped she wouldn't wind up taking it out on them out of sheer reflex if she was turned down.

Back to the fist hand: Victoria really, really did not want to fall out of contact with them. Beth was not the only one who had grown attached, as much as she didn't want to admit it. Normally it would have taken her longer to make friends, the cynical ice queen that she was, but who knew? Maybe many near-death experiences solidified friendship faster, like the two alcohols mixed together she had seen her dad concoct in her youth. By the same token, she would have to establish the friendship fast before the concoction curdled.

And then again, there was always the danger. Victoria was sure she would never forgive herself if anything happened to Beth.

Yet nothing had stopped Ida from being hurt. Perhaps there was something to be said for safety in numbers.

It was still possible it was an accident.

Yet the timing had been so…

Victoria shook her head. In the end it came down to the Pokémon. The rows and rows of tombstones did it for her.

She believed in taking the path that would lead to the fewest regrets in the end. In a way it was already kind of too late. She knew that she would always wonder about Gav and Kaylee, always wish she knew how they were. Keeping in touch via phone was always possible, but it was not enough at the same time. She wanted to be able to help them, especially if they were even half right about the things they were fighting against.

"How are you doing, little lady?" A low voice from behind her suddenly said. It was just about the rudest call back to reality Victoria could possibly think of, and jarring to boot. She fought every single impulse in her already shot system that was screaming at her to jump and yell. Instead she clamped down on any sign of fear and turned around to face the man behind her coldly.

"Do I know you?"

"Not yet," he said. He was maybe 25 from the looks of it, but pretty scrawny. She could only guess at his age due to the haggard, beaten-up quality of his skin and hair. She took in a breath and caught a pungent smell. _How charming. Drunk as well_. Victoria crinkled her nose. It had to be what, seven a.m. at the most? How utterly impractical. He was either a complete alcoholic or was still up from a party the night before. Just as she was about to destroy this drunkard with the power of sarcasm alone, a second voice spoke up behind her.

"Hey, babe. Been looking for you."

Victoria, for one insane second, could not believe the ridiculous amount of scummy human trash that resided in Lavender Town. Just when she was about to curse this place off the map though, she recognized the second voice and turned to look up into Gav's face.

She cottoned on quick. "Sweetie, hi. Saved you a seat," she said, bumping down and patting the bench beside her.

The guy behind her groaned. "Aw, come on. Don't do me like that. Don't make me feel bad."

Gav turned around to face the guy, his expression completely calm. "Leave us alone, alright? She's not interested, as you can see. Thanks." He did not turn back around though, and maintained his almost eerily serene eye contact.

Victoria was rather confused at the moment. One one hand, her feminist sensibilities were mortified for about a thousand reasons. Gav was staking his claim over her like a piece of meat, granted for a good purpose and all. He was stepping in on a battle that was hers to fight, which made her antsy. Then there was this drunken jerk who was just about the lowest scum on earth in her opinion.

The guy regarded Gav for a while, sizing him up. Finally he blinked and shook his head. "Whatever, her loss." With that he staggered away into the weak morning light. Victoria let out a terse breath and muttered some choice, sailor-would-blush curse words under her breath. Gav chuckled from beside her.

She turned to him and they looked at each other evenly. He was dressed down in a dark blue and brown flannel shirt and a pair of long jeans that made him look like a kid and an adult at the same time. His hair wasn't held in its usual ponytail and looked rather unkempt, as if he'd run out of the Center without bothering to get ready. Glancing behind his head she saw that her bench was in direct eyeshot of the front window of the Pokémon Center. She drew the only conclusion she could think of.

"So, you saw the creep through the window, then?"

"Saw you sitting on a bench zoning out, then saw the creep," he said, smiling softly and scratching at the side of his face. "I'm sure you'd have handled him just fine, and it probably would have been a great show for me, but… can't really help it. I hate those kind of people."

Victoria's first instinct was to say "yeah, I'd have been fine," but she clamped down on it. Instead she said, "Thank you for coming out, anyway," returning the smile and feeling suddenly small and insignificant. "Who would have thought creeps like that would hang around Lavender, huh? Doesn't seem like much of a party town."

Gav laughed. "Yeah, tell me about it. But, you're okay, right?"

Again there was that first reaction to defensively brush off his concern. She smiled instead and said, "I'm fine. I…" she winced as a flutter of anxiety beat in her chest. _This is it_, she thought. _May as well get it over with now, even though it's the last thing on your list._ She tried very, very hard to make the words come out. _I wanted to talk to you, _seemed to be stuck in her throat.

Gav seemed confused, but nodded. "One of those days? I'll leave you alone." He went to stand up and Victoria took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. Hell, it _was _the last item on her list. She hadn't showered or packed yet. She could find him later when she actually knew what the heck she was going to say. Maybe she could even make a list of her arguing points, put them on index cards like a politician giving a press conference. The thought made her smirk.

Gav paused, and Victoria's attention immediately snapped back to him as her apprehension grew again. She was sure he was going to say something that would perfectly segue into her request and she would be forced to bring the subject up.

What he actually said merely stunned her into silence even further. "Kay and I are heading out tonight. Just, I guess this might be goodbye." He paused. "If I don't see you around the Center today, that is."

Victoria just stared at him, dumbfounded. Finally she said, "Is Kaylee going to say bye, too?" It was not quite what she had been thinking of saying to him.

He paused again. "I'm... not sure if Kay is up for that. She's pretty emotional, so count yourself lucky if she won't be sending all that awkward your way." He smiled slightly. "Do tell Beth we said bye, though."

"Yeah, alright," Victoria said, watching herself say this and sit there and do nothing. She couldn't believe it. "I will."

He remained for just a moment, but didn't linger. She watched the back of his flannel shirt retreating to the doors of the Center and remained staring at the building long after they had closed. The sun rose over the Eastern mountain ranges and shone down on her, still sitting on her bench.

* * *

"So they're going, huh."

Beth's question was not really a question. Victoria didn't need to answer it. The sisters were sitting on their separate beds, the deteriorating map of Kanto on the nightstand between them. Tomorrow Victoria supposed they would get up, eat somewhere with horrible customer service, and plan their training venture.

The thought sort of made her want to vomit.

_Way to go, _Victoria thought to herself. _Way to totally fail at what you set yourself out to do. No biggie though, right? It's only giving up on the first important conviction you've had in years. Whatever!_

The sarcasm felt like it was melting her brain. Was that how the wait staff at various restaurants felt when she turned it on them full-blast? She'd have to make a special effort to tone it down a bit.

Restless, Victoria got to her feet and moved over to the small desk in the corner. The pad of stationary was still on the table, as was the pen. In the trashcan was her little balled up sheet of green paper, where she had thrown away evidence of her feelings.

_8) I'm freaked out that I'd rather run away than admit I care and want to help_

"Do you still have his number?" Beth asked suddenly from the other side of the room.

The question actually gave Victoria a physical reaction. Her limbs twitched, as if her hands wanted to find her phone and her legs wanted to walk at the same time. She strode over to the nightstand and stared over at the new cell, shiny and green and bereft of any old contacts.

"I—" Victoria began, her throat feeling constricted. "I don't."

Beth's face crumbled. "Well, crap," she said, but a second later the expression was replaced with one of complete confusion. "Vee?"

Victoria was already in her sandals and halfway out the door, though. "Stay here," she said to Beth.

"Where are you going?" her sister called after her, but the door closed before Victoria answered.


	20. Chapter 20 Orion

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 20

* * *

Orion Fremont

"I'm not really sure how to start. It's really not fair to get you involved."

"Will you stop with that, already? Just because you tell me about your dad doesn't make me an honorary Fremont." Gina leaned back against the booth seat and offered Orion a small smile. "It's okay."

Jason, Gina and Orion were sitting together in a secluded late-night sushi shop near the northeast corner of town. It must have had a pretty bad reputation since they were the only ones in and even the cashier had vanished into the back to watch TV. All-in-all it was a good place to have a conversation they didn't necessarily want overheard.

Jason shrugged at Orion. "We're already here," he said, glancing over at Gina. "Might as well."

"I know," Orion said. He sighed and ran his hand through the steam rising off his green tea, not for the first time wondering what the future would hold for him and his brother. "Well, Jason, you know this part of course. But for your benefit," he nodded to Gina, "I guess starting at the beginning is best."

"Naw," Gina joked. "Just start from right now and work your way backwards, like a mystery movie."

Jason donned a serious face and narrated. "'_They sat around a table at a crappy sushi place, wondering how to start the story. Crusty fish dried on their plates. But how did they get here? Let's turn back the clock..._'"

Gina snorted and shoved him, and he shoved back, laughing. This brought a smile to Orion's face, and untangled some of the apprehension knotting itself through his body. "Alright. Well, Jason and I were born in Vermillion. Our dad is Nathan Fremont, as I'm sure you've gathered by now. So, naturally, we—yes?" Orion paused, because Gina's hand had gone into the air like she was in lessons.

"I know this is going to make me sound like even more of a clueless new trainer than I already am, but… it sounds like your dad is pretty famous? I've actually never heard of him until recently."

Jason grinned. "That is wonderful. I almost wish I could tell him that. He'd be furious."

Orion rolled his eyes, smiling. "That would be a great idea, Jay. And Gina, our dad is the next in line for Vermillion's Gym."

Gina's eyebrows shot up, and she adopted the usual look of shocked reverence that Orion and Jason had become used to over the years. It sort of made Orion sad to see it on her face now. He'd been happy to avoid it for a while. "Wow," she said. "The current leader is Vincent Warren, yeah?" Orion nodded, and Gina thought about that for a while. "I've heard that he's sort of…" she stopped mid-sentence and bit her lip, as if looking for the right word.

"An incredible flake? Yeah, he is," Orion supplied. Gina gave him a you-said-it-not-me face. "Vincent is a former rocker, and he's still got the mentality. Most of the time I think he flakes on his job to go score drugs or hook up with old groupies." Gina's expression had morphed into one of mild shock, and Jason too seemed interested. He had been away from Orion and their father for years, after all, and Orion knew that a lot of this was news to him too. "Anyway, needless to say, that always royally pissed off Dad. He can't stand him, even though he does get the temporary glory of running the Gym while Vincent is away. Anyway, so, that's who our dad is. Pretty influential… very driven. Moderately famous, but not an official Gym leader yet."

"Right," Gina said, nodding decisively. "Got it."

"Well, dad and mom got divorced when Jason was three, and I was seven. Mom took Jason to Saffron, and I stayed with dad in Vermillion."

"And like you also know, we haven't seen each other since then," Jason added. Orion nodded and Gina shook her head.

"That freakin' sucks. Did your mom and dad just want nothing to do with each other after that or something?"

"Pretty much," Jason said, but Orion shook his head. Jason frowned at him, opening his mouth to ask, but Orion continued speaking.

"Mom, I'm sure, didn't want anything to do with Dad, but I can assure you that Dad was always interested in getting you back." Jason's face twisted into a closed-off, uncomfortable expression, and Orion felt a surge of guilt once more. This was sure going to be an awkward talk, and for the hundredth time he seriously regretted having it in front of Gina. "I mean, he was pretty bitter about not having both sons around. He's really big on the patriarchy," Orion explained for both of their sakes.

"Yeah," Jason muttered. "Sucks. Always wished Mom got us both in the custody battle."

"You and me, both," Orion agreed. He wanted to reach out and give Jason a hug or a pat on the back, but he knew this was not the time. Maybe later, but for now they had to just get through the nitty-gritty and exchange information. "But, that's not how it always works. That's life."

Gina was looking uncomfortable again, and was casting subtle little looks to Jason. Orion wondered if she would make some sort of move to comfort him, but she too seemed to think better of it. Orion cleared his throat and went on.

"Anyway, Jay, I really do think the reason Mom cut off all contact with Dad and me was to keep you and I safe." Jason frowned deeper, but seemed to understand this. Gina, on the other hand, looked thoroughly confused. Orion elaborated: "Dad's not the nicest of men. He's got a wicked temper, and he doesn't stop when he wants something. It was hard enough for Mom to successfully divorce him. If she hadn't been such a great lawyer with such good connections, I'm not sure she'd have pulled it off."

Jason smiled a little at that. "Yeah, Mom's pretty kickass."

Orion grinned. "Sure is. Dad didn't know what he was getting himself into." There was a quiet moment of soft laughter, and a brief pause where they sipped their drinks. Jason had been right; the sushi was pretty crusty, and Orion was completely content to let it sit there and ferment on the plate.

During a short pause where he took a sip of his flavorless tea, Orion tried to organize his thoughts. He never really spoke about things like this to anyone, and it was hard to keep it in order. "While Jason and Mom were in Saffron, Dad of course tried to get me to follow in his footsteps." Jason rolled his eyes, and Gina frowned.

"Electric Pokemon, or Gym Leading?" Gina asked.

"Both, I expect," Orion said. "Though he focused on the Electric Pokemon facet first."

In reality, Orion harbored the suspicion that his father did not want him to lead the Gym. Nathan Fremont's constant disapproval in him was a part of everyday life, and Orion had a sneaking feeling that their father wanted Jason back to test him out, and see if he was a better candidate. Orion had been on the receiving end of too many derogatory nicknames to figure his father had much faith in his abilities.

"I guess ultimately I need to explain how I wound up leaving Vermillion and running into you both here," Orion ventured. "Things were irritating, but bearable until about a year ago. Dad ranted about Vincent, tried not to be home, told me to keep training, and the like. He let me finish school, which was good. I think Mom stuck that in the agreement, honestly. Not sure that would have happened otherwise." Jason smiled sadly but gave him a thumbs up. "Around a year ago Dad started going on these weird, long business trips though. First I didn't think much of it, he said it was Gym business and I didn't really have any interest. It got weird though when Vincent would be gone on one of his vacations, and Dad would _still _go on his trips."

Gina frowned. "Wait, so who ran the Gym when Vincent and your dad were both gone?"

"No one," Orion said, shrugging. "Neither Vincent or Dad trusted any of the other trainers at the Gym to run the show for them. Sometimes I'd go hang out outside the Gym and try to answer questions for the trainers who'd, y'know, travelled the world for an opportunity to battle…" he rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "After a while though, it got so common I stopped trying."

Jason shook his head, trying to understand. "Wait wait wait. So, Vermillion Gym has this reputation as a loser AWOL Gym now? Why hasn't anyone been talking about this?"

"I wish I knew." Orion said. "It seems like something that would have drawn attention. I was pretty surprised that no officials came by to reprimand Vincent or Dad. Not sure what to tell you."

Gina shook her head, her bewildered expression still firmly in place. "Man, what is with all this Gym leader drama being kept under wraps? I always thought leaders would have the paparazzi all over them 24/7, but it seems so hard to find out the simplest facts about the Gyms."

Jason nodded in agreement. "Did you ever figure out where Dad goes?" he asked.

Orion paused. He glanced at the little door to the back room of the sushi shop, where the single worker had vanished long ago. No one seemed ready to come back out.

He turned back to the others. "No," he said. "But things just got weirder from there."

Orion's memory had always been extremely good, and the details came back a little too clearly. "Dad was away again on one of the trips, but this time he'd requested that I stay away from the house, with Aunt Jo." Jason nodded, recognizing the name. "I did stay with her, for about two weeks, but on the third there was a family emergency in Fuchsia and they had to fly out. I didn't want to impose, so I decided to head back to our house. Dad hadn't really said that I was forbidden to go home, just that he wanted me to stay at Jo's. I didn't think it was a big deal if I went back."

The house had been a wreck. Orion remembered his boots crunching over glass, and the pungent smell of some kind of chemical agent that burned his eyes and nose. His first instinct had been to run back outside, call 21, and wait there for backup. He had been right about to do just that when he caught movement from the corner of his eye and froze.

"Dad was there, cleaning up. He rounded the corner of the kitchen and saw me, and we both just sort of stopped moving for a long time. His face was all…" Orion paused. The vision of their father's scarred, battered face, black and blue and tender erupted in his mind. "He'd been injured," Orion said, censoring the details.

"What the hell?" Jason asked.

"That's what I finally asked. And he, well, he flipped out."

_Get out! _Orion had stumbled backward, tripped, gone down hard on the ground. Glass cut into his palms. His father's curses and threats followed him as he crab-walked into a standing position and bolted out the door.

Gina and Jason wore matching expressions of horror. Orion averted his eyes, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. He felt like the puppy at the shelter that would flinch if someone so much as raised a hand. "Needless to say, I got out of there."

Orion had run like the wind. He dashed between buildings and parked cars, taking the most direct routes he knew. He was caught in the rain halfway, and when he made it to the Pokemon Center he was a nervous wreck. With his back pressed against the cold brick, Orion had struggled to get a hold of himself so that when he walked in through the doors his expression would not give him away.

"I just headed into the Center and said something stupid, like 'hoo boy, got caught in the rain!' They had to take my I.D. since I didn't really make a habit of getting out often. Not too many people could recognize me by face. The woman thought the 'O' in my I.D. was a 'D', which is where I originally got the idea for the fake name."

Jason nodded. "Did you go on the run then?"

"Not just yet."

Nathan Fremont "returned" home a week later, and only Orion knew he had been back in Vermillion beforehand. Orion got the call at the Pokemon Center, and his father, predictably, was furious on the phone. _I told you to stay with Joan! _Orion told the truth, not seeing any point in lying. _She had a family emergency, and I decided to come home. What happened? _His father didn't have a momentary pause, or bark that it was none of his business. His story had seemed rehearsed. _Break-in. They were gone by the time I got there. Come home. _His dad had hung up on him then, and Orion knew it was time to start the walk back to their little house near the Gym.

"When I got back home I couldn't help it. I asked a bunch of questions. He got really mad really fast, but from what he did tell me, his injuries were sustained while training on his trip, totally not related to the break-in. He said he was mad at me for walking in all over the evidence, which of course, made no sense. I saw him tampering with it himself, cleaning up. Plus no officers ever came to follow up with us. I don't think he placed a call to 21 at all."

Jason had been very quiet throughout this whole story, but spoke up now. "So, you think he knows who broke in? And it was something he knew he couldn't report? Heck, do you think he got into a fight inside your house with them, and that's why…?"

Orion shrugged. "That was the first thing that came to my mind. I thought it sounded pretty crazy, conspiracy stuff that doesn't happen in real life. Now though, I don't know. His story was so full of holes. I only got more evidence to worry me the next time he went away."

Jason did a double-take. "He kept going off even after that?"

Orion ran a hand over his face. "Apparently. When he was gone I went snooping around the house, trying to find something that would tell me what was going on."

Nathan Fremont's room was free of anything save the basics. He had a bed with dark gray sheets, a bunch of pillows and a dresser full of solid-color clothing. There was a desk with paperwork that all had to do with the Gym, or their bills. Some of it was about the divorce, which Orion found strange. He'd have figured that, since it had happened over seven years ago, the divorce papers would be filed away elsewhere.

It took him days to find the latch under Nathan's bed. He'd found it by accident, really, while he was laying down on the floor to stretch his back after hours of poring through every piece of paper he could get his hands on. His head had moved to the right, and a thin line of light became visible in the setting sun. It was just the perfect angle; he was sure it would have blended in to the floorboards otherwise.

"I found this latch under the bed, and there was a compartment underneath. Totally cliche spy stuff," he joked, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work. Gina and Jason's expressions were mirroring one another, and right now they both looked horrified and completely absorbed in what he was saying. "Seriously though, I didn't get to read any of it."

"Dad came home?" Jason asked, his voice rising in horror. Orion shushed him gently.

"No. But he'd covered everything in this really thin sheen of white powder. If I'd touched anything it would have shown."

There was silence at the table. Jason let out a shaky breath. "This is intense."

"You're telling me," Orion said. "I put everything back just the way I found it, was careful not to breathe on the papers or anything. Then I continued with life as usual until he came back."

"I can't believe you stayed around so long," Gina admitted. "When did you actually leave?"

"Two weeks later," Orion said. "Dad came home, and I dropped a hint that I wanted to go visit relatives and travel around to train. He said no, of course, and I pointed out that I'd be 16 soon and the decision was really mine. He told me I was an idiot and I was forbidden to go. I didn't answer him, deliberately. I want him to think I'm gone because I'm going through a rebellious teenager phase."

Gina frowned for a moment, but caught on quickly. "That's smart. So, you just took off the next time he went away, started going by Daniel… and he hasn't bugged you yet?"

"No, not yet. And, you've got it spot on. I left my old cell phone at home and got a new one from K-wireless. I'd been on the road for a month or so when you guys found me."

Jason shook his head. "That's insane. I don't even know what to say."

"Orion, did you call the police, or… I don't know, tell anyone? Your relatives?"

Jason and Orion laughed in unison, and Gina jumped slightly at the sudden sound.

"It doesn't really work that way," Jason explained. "I barely remember the divorce and all, but even then I knew that doing anything against Dad's will was…"

"Borderline impossible?"

"Potential suicide."

"Ushering in the apocalypse."

"Capturing Mewtwo."

"With a Pokeball."

"I get it," Gina interjected. "But still, this is serious. Do you have any theories on what he's…?"

"I don't know, honestly. I've wracked my brain but all I can think of is that he's involved with illegal drugs, or badge trade."

"Badge trade?" Jason asked incredulously.

"Didn't say it made any sense, but those are my only theories. It does seem pretty out of character since the Gym is pretty much Dad's whole life. I can't imagine him selling badges to people who haven't earned them, either, but… who knows, at this point." Orion glanced over to the side, not wanting to deal with this anymore. "I admit, I've been avoiding deciding what to do. It was nice, just to be out on my own, away from him. Then finding Jason again, and being able to just travel around… Anyway, that's the story."

"Thanks for letting me hear," Gina said at once. "I'm sorry you had such a crappy past year."

"The only thing I'm worried about now is the news article," Orion admitted. "Things have been quiet on Dad's end, but that doesn't mean he's not looking for me. I left my old phone at home, so I don't really know if he's been trying to find me. If he wasn't before, he might well be now." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair rapidly, a gesture that had no point except to provide him movement. "If he knows I'm with you, you're on your journey, Mom's not with us… it might be complicated."

Gina bit her lip, understanding coming to her face. "Well... that sucks kind of a lot." She paused. "What… d'you think we should do?"

Jason didn't catch it right away, but Orion did. "Wait, we?"

Gina shrugged, but awkwardness crept into her posture. "Well, if I can help. Which I probably can't. But still, if there were…"

Jason gave her a confounded look for a moment. He tried to say something, and settled for just leaning his head on his arm and staring at Gina with his puzzled look for a moment. Gina's air of discomfort increased and she fidgeted, reverting to her nervous habit of pulling her hands through her hair.

"What?" she finally asked.

"Just, you're a good friend," Jason said simply. Gina's face broke into an awkward smile, and then Jason ruined it. "It's just so _weird._"

"What? Why is it '_weird_?'" she asked, the smile evaporating and a scandalized look taking its place.

"I mean, I just never expected a girl to be so cool with all this."

Orion snorted into his now frigid tea as Gina sniped sarcastically at Jason, who back-pedaled like a pro and laughed as she tossed napkins at him. Orion left marks on the table for the still-absent shop employee and tried to defend his brother as they got up to leave the shop.

"Don't worry, Gina. Jason is a little special, as you and I both know." He ducked under a swipe Jason aimed for the back of his head, laughing. "This is how he says he cares."

* * *

It really had been enough serious talk for one night. Jason and Gina headed straight to bed, but Orion just could not make himself settle down. He logged onto one of the computer consoles in the Center, browsing through the few search sites they allowed through their extremely stringent filters. News in Vermillion was pretty standard. There had been a few fires put out by the fire department, which linked to a related story about the fire team's senior Blastoise going into retirement and the big ceremony which had followed. Aaron Faraday, the mayor of Vermillion, was still on his huge kick to revolutionize the traffic conditions and introduce roads that would allow for more cars. He was being fought by the Vermillion Preservation Society every step of the way. Students were doing poorly on exams, and the increased number of channels available in the simpler cable packages were, of course, to blame. Concerned parents and teachers gave quotes.

Nothing came up for Orion's searches. "Vermillion Gym" and "Nathan Fremont" did not exist in recent news. He cringed when he typed in "Orion Fremont" and that single damning news story popped up. There was nothing to be done now, though, and he powered down the computer and sat there, propping his head up on his arms as he thought and stared at the dark screen.

The general consensus had been not to worry about it right now. Orion was 16 and legally free to travel if he wanted to, and Jason was still underage and in his mother's care. If the worst-case scenario happened, and his dad came to Cerulean looking for Orion… he would deal with it then.

Something moved behind him and he spun to see what it was. Nothing was there though, and he shook his head. He was definitely getting tired, and sitting here until he started seeing things out of tiredness was not going to help. Orion got up, stretched, and headed to his room.

Once there he kicked off his boots, took off his shirt and sat on the edge of his bed, staring blankly at the floor. For a while he just counted breaths, trying not to feel so stressed out. After a while he realized that struggling so hard not to feel stressed was resulting in more stress, and he stopped trying to do anything at all.

He wasn't sure how long he sat like that, but when he got the text message on his phone it snapped him back to reality in a very jarring way. He pulled the phone out, wondering if it was Jason also unable to sleep. It was Zahlia's number.

_Are you asleep? I'm sorry if you are._

Orion smiled to himself, lay back in bed, and texted her back with the phone held up over his face.

_No, I can't really sleep tonight. What's up?_

He put his arms down and stared at the ceiling, no thoughts really taking precedence in his brain. It was a nice feeling, close to relaxing. His phone buzzed again.

_Couldn't sleep either. How are Jason and Gina? Cascade badges yet?_

_No, not yet. We've had a pretty busy past few days. _Orion typed up a brief message about their experience on Mt. Moon and the resultant newspaper article that had been published about them. Zahlia's response was speedy.

_That is such terrible protocol. I am quite sure the newspaper that published your name and the identity of your underaged younger brother just broke the law._

_I'm pretty sure too, _Orion typed back. _But I'm not really sure what to do about it now. To make a fuss about it would just draw more attention. _He paused, staring at his phone until the backlight timer ran out and darkness filled the room. Then he finished his message.

_What have you been up to? Any chance we'll see you soon?_

Orion woke up quite suddenly the next morning. His cell phone was laying on his chest, clutched loosely in his hand, and he cursed under his breath, something rare for him. He had completely fallen asleep on Zahlia while they had been messaging. He peered at his phone, expecting to see a couple of unopened messages from her, ending in "fell asleep, I see," or something of the sort. When he saw nothing from her he frowned, wondering if she'd fallen asleep as well. He couldn't even remember if it had been he or she who sent the last message, or what they'd been talking about. He called up his sent items list to check.

_What have you been up to? Any chance we'll see you soon?

* * *

_

Orion bit his lip. It was possible, he reasoned, that this was sensitive ground. Nevertheless, he typed up and sent her a message. _I totally fell asleep on you last night. I'm really sorry. How's your morning going?_

It was 8 a.m., but he knew Zahlia was an early riser like him. Now, if he'd sent that to Jason instead, the wrath would know no ends.

Orion got up, got dressed, and went to eat breakfast. Predictably, Jason and Gina were nowhere to be found, still blissfully in the arms of slumber. Orion waited for his food behind a very rude kid with rusty-colored hair, some kind of blend of coppery orange and red. He'd never really seen anyone with this kind of coloring before and wondered vaguely about his ethnic blend as there was nothing else to do in the horrible line. Rude kid moved off with his food, making a loud comment about PokeChow looking more appetizing, and Orion shook his head slightly as he placed his order.

It was only when he sat down that it occurred to Orion; Zahlia hadn't written back to him. It had been about forty-five minutes, and he found it pretty strange. Orion turned his phone off for a few minutes, ate some of his food, and turned it back on. He went to get a refill of orange juice, and when he had returned, he had a text. Smiling, he went to open it and saw _For the low price of 9.95 a month, you can upgrade your texting plan!_

Frowning, Orion deleted the ad and put his phone down next to him. He told himself it was nothing, and she was just busy. He almost managed to convince himself of this as he finished his food and flipped through the morning paper, waiting for his lazy brother to arise.

* * *

"Seriously, we don't have to be here."

"Now it's my turn: will you stop with that already? It's okay." Orion smiled at Gina, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Ooh, burn," Jason commented, giving Orion a high-five. "Now come on, I really want to see what it looks like in there."

Gina dawdled a little outside the doors of the Cerulean City Pokemon Gym. "I don't know. What if we're not allowed to just walk in and look? It might be one of those things where you have to fight if you go inside."

"You're _ridiculous,_" Jason said, laughter punctuating his last word. "Really Gina? Really? You think they're going to _force _you to battle if you so much as set foot—"

"Agh, alright! You've made your point! Now shut up!"

Jason laughed even louder at Gina just to goad her on, which was working very well since they were attracting the attentions of those around them. Gina punched Jason in the shoulder, which did absolutely nothing to stop him, and soon the two were play-fighting off to side of the Gym doors. Orion stepped to the side to let a nervous-looking trainer pass him by and enter.

He had to admit, they'd really done a number on this place. He remembered seeing pictures of what the Gym used to look like, and fully approved of its architectural changes. The old Gym had been pretty atrocious, with an enormous plaster Dewgong slapped directly above the doors, leaning against a gaudy pink and gold dome that looked like an enormous beach ball. Orion shuddered just remembering it.

They'd kept the dome shape, and even the blue and white spiral pillars around the front, but the Dewgong had been removed. In its place was a large mock-up of the cascade badge, a large water drop that shone like a sapphire in the sun. Orion was pretty sure it was not an actual gigantic hunk of gemstone, but the effect sure fooled the eye. The gold and pink had also been painted over, and the creamy off-white was a welcome change.

Gina and Jason eventually stopped sparring and the three of them made their way in to the wonderfully cool interior of the Cerulean Gym. It was very air conditioned in here, which didn't surprise Orion in the slightest. Most of the floor was taken up by an enormous pool, though there were areas to the left and right where people could wait on the sidelines. Orion also noted the bleachers above, to his relief. He hadn't really been looking forward to getting drenched a hundred times over while watching the match.

There were some nervous-looking trainers up in the bleachers even now, wringing their hats and fiddling with their Dexes. An older woman with short gray hair was relaxing on the other side of the Gym, dipping her feet into the pool and leaning back, enjoying the sunlight that filtered in through the large plate-glass windows that interspersed the domed ceiling. She glanced up at their entry and smiled.

"There's a bit of a line, as you can see," she said, dipping her hands in the water and running them over her arms. "Right now I'm waiting for my assistants to return with more items from the Mart, so we're sort of on standby." She had such a pleasant manner to her, and a wide smile with crows-feet laughter lines around her eyes. Orion instantly liked her.

"No problem, ma'am," he said. "We're just looking for now."

"Oh, don't call me _ma'am,_" the woman insisted, waving her hands at them. Orion noticed she wore a great number of chunky plastic bracelets. "Call me Lily! Or Miss Lily, if just Lily is too weird for you."

Orion heard Gina take in a quick gasp of air beside him. He turned to her, frowning, but she was addressing Lily now.

"Are you Lily Yawa?" she asked, blinking rapidly as if momentarily stunned.

"Yup! That's me," the woman said, smiling even more. "Daisy and Violet aren't around though, just me this Fall."

"Wow," Gina said, shaking her head. "It's great to meet you," she called, but stopped when she saw some of the trainers up on the bleachers looking at her with something like contempt. She fell quiet at once and Orion asked a question instead.

"So do you and your sisters take turns with the Gym?" he asked, trying to figure out how this place was run. He could have sworn the Cerulean Gym leader was Misty, but now it appeared that it was one of the sisters instead. To be honest he'd forgotten the names of the other sisters.

"Mmhmm," she said. Just then a harried looking young woman burst in through the doors followed by a very tall young man, who tripped halfway to Lily. The girl turned around and grimaced at him, but kept jogging to her boss. The boy got up, flushing bright red, and caught up.

"Oh my! Derek, are you alright?" Lily asked, getting up and motioning for the items to be placed somewhere in the back. "No need to run, no need to run! It's slippery in here, after all. Hear that?" she called suddenly up to the bleachers. "It's slippery! No running!"

Gina and Orion were retreating towards the door now that it looked like the battles would begin again. Lily saw them leaving and waved to them.

"Toodles! See you later?"

"Yes!" Gina said, smiling at her. "Bye!"

Once outside, Jason shook his head and groaned, apparently very disappointed. Both Orion and Gina looked at him with questioning expressions, and he expounded.

"She's an old lady! I don't want to fight an old lady, I'll feel bad!"

Gina rolled her eyes. "Jason… you do realize that 'old woman' has been a Gym leader for longer than our parents have been alive? I somehow get the impression she can whoop your butt."

"But… it'll be like challenging my grandma," Jason whined as they headed back towards the Center. "I don't wanna challenge my grandma."

Gina made a "_chah_," sound and threw her hands up in the air, and Orion smiled briefly. His hand was in his pocket though, and a moment later he had finished his compulsive phone check. There was still no response from Zahlia, and the sun was high in the sky now. It beat down on them as they figured out somewhere to eat for lunch, and it weighed heavily on Orion's mind, already so full of concerns.


	21. Chapter 21 Victoria

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 21

* * *

Victoria Larson

Victoria and Beth sat across from each other in a little cafe in Saffron City, waiting for the waiter to come back. This one was a lot better than the one they'd had the last time they were here, and Victoria had to wonder if it was due to her expert abuse. Perhaps the establishment had cracked down on their wait staff, or the ones Victoria chewed out had run away sobbing.

Beth was dressed up today, not because they had anything particularly interesting planned, but because it was their first morning back in Saffron. They'd left the Lavender Town Center about a week ago and had consequentially worn everything else they had brought along on their journey. Now her sister was in a flowy blue top with a scoop neck and gauzy-thin sleeves. Victoria, of course, had made fun of her for this, but Beth only stuck her tongue out at her. Victoria was wearing the same shirt twice in a row, though, and couldn't wait to get back to the Center and make use of their washing machines.

For now, though, they had prior engagements.

Beth craned her neck to look around the cafe, her eyes searching for something behind her sister's head. A smile came to her face at once, and she waved. Victoria turned around in her seat as well.

Gav and Kaylee spotted them at once and nodded to them, making their way over to the table. They had bags from one of the Saffron City PokeMarts in tow, and leaned them against the wall of the cafe as they took their seats beside Victoria and Beth.

"Ordered you coffee," Victoria mentioned to Gav, who smiled and nodded his thanks. Kaylee crinkled her nose and began a protest, but Victoria put her hand up. "Not for you. You've got tea coming."

The four friends settled into their morning small talk, discussing the items available at the closest PokeMart as opposed to the ones sold at the heart of town, and Victoria's probable-revamping of the wait staff all across Kanto. They were somewhat awake and alert when their drinks came out, along with a plate of biscuits.

Kaylee tore into one, ripping it into little clumps and slathering butter liberally over everything. "Well, I don't know how long we're actually gonna hang around here. Gav here found out something interesting."

Victoria sighed. "I refuse to leave without doing laundry first."

Beth nodded furiously and motioned to her outfit. "I mean, I look fabulous and all, but…"

Gav chuckled and shook his head. "No, absolutely not. We must leave right this second, dirty clothing and all."

Kaylee grinned deviously. "That's part of our espionage boot camp."

Victoria made a face at Kaylee, and Kaylee's grin spread as she began spearing biscuit on her fork. She turned to Gav. "What did you find?"

As usual, Gav dug out his PDA and flicked through some screens. Victoria waited patiently while Beth reached past her and snagged a biscuit to nibble on. Gav slid the PDA to Victoria, who picked it up and scanned the story that was lit up on the screen.

_Nathan Fremont of Vermillion Gym on sabbatical _

Victoria frowned as she read through the short story, scrolling down when she needed more text. It seemed pretty boring, in all honesty, but she figured Gav would expand on this more when they were not in so public an area. When she was done she scrolled back up to the top and passed the device to Beth, who read through it as well. Gav and Victoria each took a biscuit, split it neatly down the middle, and buttered both halves lightly.

"I figure we'll hang here maybe another day, two?" Kaylee asked Gav between mouthfuls. "Just to restock and rest a little?"

"Yeah, more or less," Gav agreed. "The path North is pretty straightforward and incredibly trainer-friendly, so it won't take us long at all to reach the next spot." He paused, and glanced at Beth and Victoria. "I mean, we can stick around here a little longer though, it's not like—"

"We're fine," Victoria interjected, putting her biscuit halves down and raising her eyebrow at Gav.

The four trainers ordered their enormous breakfasts and dug in, keeping conversation to a minimum until the food was consumed. Victoria found her mind wandering to apprehensive little questions about what they should expect from traveling with Gav and Kaylee. The walk from Lavender to Saffron (on the paved path) had been pretty uneventful, though certainly fun with the company. Now though, they would be getting into the "nitty gritty" so to speak, and it was here where the nerves really sank in.

It had been about three weeks since Victoria had dashed like a madwoman out of the Lavender City Pokemon Center and caught Gav and Kaylee just at the outskirts of town. The resultant confusion had been comical, in hindsight; not seeing Beth, and only catching quick words from the very exhausted Victoria, Gav and Kaylee had become convinced that her sister as in some sort of new mortal peril. It had taken Victoria a while to convince them that this was not the case, and even longer to work up the nerve to ask them to come back to the Center briefly and talk.

It had not been a comfortable conversation, but the moment Victoria had finally spat out her proposition, Gav had seemed to realize it was already decided. The looks on Kaylee and Beth's faces made their decision for them. When Gav directed a small smile with some kind of hidden meaning at Victoria, however, it made her think that he wasn't completely against the idea, either.

Kaylee leaned back in her chair and sighed happily, patting her stomach and pushing her plate away. "Oh yeah," she said, happily. "This place knows how to do food."

"Nothing quite like The Slab, though."

"Ohhhh no! No, don't you dare talk about The Slab to me!" Kaylee said, covering her ears at once and twisting her face into a pained expression.

Victoria laughed. "I take it this is a restaurant back in Pewter?"

"The best divey bar-and-grill you could ever imagine," Gav insisted. "They brought everything to temperature on these big slabs of granite out back, with the establishment's Arcanine. We always got discounted prices since Kaylee adopted two of the four Growlithe when their Arcanine had pups. The owner always insisted he would have had a fit trying to feed and raise all of them."

"Yeah, I got cheap food and free Pokemon," Kaylee said, shaking her head as if she still couldn't believe this years later. "And they're thanking _me. _I must have done something really good in a past life."

Gav shook his head. "You? Impossible." Kaylee threatened to butter him, and the resultant mini-food fight actually had Victoria, with a big grin on her face, _apologizing_ to a waiter, for once.

* * *

Back at the Center Victoria and the others headed straight for the back and piled into Gav's room, shutting the door behind them. Victoria went over to his desk, cleared herself a spot in the paperwork, and sat on it, and Gav sat backwards on the single chair, and Beth and Kaylee pounced on the bed.

Victoria had initially hated this Saffron City Center, one of two enormous multi-story ones in the large city. It was a weird buttery sunset color that had initially disagreed with her, but she found it was growing on her, a little. It could have been worse, after all. It was not traffic-jacket screaming neon yellow, after all.

Gav called up the story on his PDA again and set it off to the side, then pulled a few papers off the desk near Victoria's leg. She shifted away to let him grab them easier, and her eyes caught one phrase: _illegal activity up 8% since last July._

Gav caught her looking and nodded. "Yup. This is the annual State of the City address for Vermillion from last year. As you all know, Nathan Fremont is the Vermillion City Gym leader, for all practical purposes."

Victoria frowned. "Isn't it—"

"Vincent Warren, yes, on paper. But Fremont runs the place, does the upkeep, paperwork, and even does Warren's cooler job of battling trainers and giving press conferences much of the time."

Victoria nodded, following now. Not many younger kids realized how their government worked, but Gym Leaders were actually a very vital part of the decisions that came through city legislature. The Mayors were in charge of the ultimate decision when it came to the people in their districts, but the Leaders were in charge of decisions regarding Pokemon. Of course, some decisions went partially to the Mayor as well, such as issues regarding Pokemon and transportation, or any Pokemon use in government jobs, but Leaders were enormously influential in more than one way.

That was why Victoria couldn't stop her look of bewildered skepticism when Gav said, "We've got some suspicions about Fremont. We're not too sure, but he might be dirty."

Beth frowned. "There weren't any scandals about him in any of the papers or tabloids," she muttered. "I wonder if that means it's something else being kept under wraps."

Kaylee rolled her eyes. "Aw, Beth? You read tabloids? I thought you were cool!"

Beth sat up straighter and faced Kaylee, defending her point. "No, really! You learn so much from the stories they print there! Yes, some of it is just a load of crap, or total rumor, but you'd be surprised!"

Gav seemed hesitant. "If there's one thing Kay and I trust less than the police, it's the media."

"Doesn't mean you can't research that and see if it has any merit," Beth pointed back quickly. Victoria took a small moment to be immensely proud of her sister. It appeared all of their bantering debates in childhood had paid off. "Why don't you let me do that?" Beth offered. "I mean, Vee and I want to be able to help you out occasionally, you know. It couldn't hurt."

Kaylee started a new argument, but Gav spoke over her. "You're right. It couldn't hurt. Never know what might leak in, I suppose."

"Plus," Victoria pointed out, "If someone is trying to keep stories to a bare minimum in the real mainstream, respected papers—sorry Beth," she added, for Beth had made a face at her. "—They might not be paying any attention at all to fluff papers."

"Tabloids have a really bad name," Beth said with a sigh. "It's a shame, only a few of them are _really _dumb."

"Anyway," Gav said, "moving along. Fremont has been leaving his Gym a lot lately, and there have been complaints that trainers who want to challenge the Vermillion Leader are unable to get a hold of Warren _or _Fremont."

Victoria shook her head, dumbfounded. "And this hasn't been in the news, either." It wasn't really a question, but Gav answered it.

"Nope. Highly strange, yes. The only reason Kay and I know about it is from the blog of a small business owner. He lives right around the area and has noticed the increasing number of frustrated trainers. The post went away a few days after he put it up, but Kay and I stole the text from the site before it disappeared."

Victoria fought off a slight shiver. "How convenient. Silenced receptionists, silenced reports..."

Kay nodded gravely. "You get used to it." She paused. "No, that's a lie. You don't."

Victoria had another question, though, and raised her hand like she was in school. This seemed to amuse Gav. "Yes, Miss Larson?"

"You said we're heading north, though. Cerulean? Why not south to Vermillion?"

"Glad you asked," he said, showing her his PDA. Apparently he had not been calling up the old story about Fremont's vacation, but a new one. "Check out this one."

* * *

Victoria was pretty sure she understood the general plan, and was also fairly okay with it, so far. The first step would be to get to Cerulean City, and that seemed simple enough. The details would be hashed out then, and they would see if there were things Victoria and Beth could help with.

Okay, so she was only "alright" with this plan because there _was _no plan yet. She hoped this feeling would not change too drastically once they made it to the next city.

The walk to Cerulean was, blessedly, done on a main road. Main roads were pretty wonderful, in Victoria's humble opinion. They were paved, provided some shade and rain cover, had periodic pay booths, and often times had food vendors lining the sides to make a killing off of hungry trainers. There were still campsites off to the side, marked off with rope and sprayed with Repel to keep out wilds, and Victoria spotted many vacationing families on the rather picturesque Route 5. The most fantastic thing of all, to Victoria anyway, were the little cabins spread out every ten miles or so that held a long line of beds. It wasn't wonderful, and wild Rattata sometimes got in at night, but it was covered, had pillows, and didn't require setup like a tent.

Still, she had to be vaguely impressed at the way Gav and Kaylee carried everything. The two tents folded up shockingly small and were bungee-corded onto two mountaineering backpacks which were filled with their clothing, tied tight with string to maximize space. Their pan hung from Gav's pack and the pot from Kaylee's, and Gav's pack held the accordion file, which got wrapped in plastic before a journey. The mats that they had spread out on the ground of their campsite were folded up quite small and fit into a flat pocket against Gav's back, and the sleeping bags were tied off at the backs of their heads. Everything else that involved cooking, such as the thermoses and beat-up tin plates and forks, somehow fit in a separate bag compartment. It seemed like a very complex game of Tetris that one had to get just right, but the siblings were pros.

It made Victoria feel a little silly that her own bag was looking full just with her change of clothes and breakfast bars. Granted she also had her toiletries, but she knew that Kaylee and Gav had those, as well. It baffled her that Beth and she were (silently) huffing and puffing behind them after a full day of walking while only carrying relatively light packs.

"You do get used to _that_," Kaylee told Beth as they stopped to drink water. "It's great cardio."

"I'm going to hunt up some food," Beth said, motioning to one of the kiosks that sold Gyros. "In the treacherous wild."

"Beware!" Victoria said, and Gav and Kaylee chuckled appreciatively.

* * *

Beth was beside herself with joy when the troupe arrived in Cerulean the following day. Victoria could not keep the smile off her face; Beth's happiness was utterly contagious. Even Gav and Kaylee, who had been relatively mellow and quiet for much of the journey, seemed unable to resist her infectious mood.

"Oh, oh my God, look at the sign! Look at the _sign_!" Beth said, her voice dangerously close to a squeal. "It's got Cascade Badges all over it! Ahhh!"

Victoria laughed and pulled out her cell phone, fiddling with it a little until she got the application she wanted. "Go pose by it," Victoria said, motioning vaguely with one hand as she searched for the "capture" feature of her phone-camera. Beth obediently bounded over and tossed up two peace signs, and Victoria managed to snap a slightly blurry photo. Beth nevertheless beamed over it and hugged her. Victoria heard Gav say to Kaylee: "Well, dang. She does wonders for our image."

She had to admit, it was true. They were playing the perfect tourists, enthralled with one of Kanto's most aesthetically pleasing cities. Cerulean was very artsy; almost every building was adorned with some sort of marine-themed mural. Public pools were very common, as were tanning salons and little bikini shops. Beth was in paradise.

"Let's go check in, I want to change into my shorts and tank top," Beth insisted. "I purposefully didn't wear them on Route 5, you know."

Victoria smirked. "So proud of you," she said sarcastically, and Beth stuck her tongue out.

About half an hour later Gav, Kaylee, Beth and Victoria ate sandwiches together in a corner of the Center lobby, enjoying hot food while they could. Beth still seemed to be itching to get up and move, but she was being good. They knew it would be business first. Right now they were using code names to brainstorm about their investigation of Nathan Fremont.

"It could be that he's just worried about his kids," Victoria reasoned. "Freddy _is _a dad, after all. After he read that article he might have wanted to go check out what had happened." Victoria wanted to read the article again herself, actually. "_New Trainer Initiates perform civic duty on Mt. Moon"_—she could probably look it up on the Center's computer later.

"Maybe so," Gav said, pausing to wash down a bite with his enormous glass of lemonade. "But the kind of guy Freddy is… I think if he thought for a second that his sons had reported a criminal, he'd want to milk that and explain to newspapers that they were heroes. The subtle little 'sabbatical' article doesn't fit."

"Also, he's been going away for almost a year now, and no papers have printed anything about it. I think this time, he's going away for a totally different reason than all those other times." Kaylee was occasionally rather shrewd, and Victoria mentally assigned her brownie points whenever she drew an astute conclusion like this.

"So, what?" Victoria asked, frowning slightly and trying to follow the train of thought. "Do you think that his sons are _up to something_?" She said the last part in a stage whisper.

"It's possible," Gav said. "Freddy's been on our list for a while. We can fill you in on the boring details of weird stories in the areas that correspond with him later. It's worth checking up on the Moony story to begin with… but the fact that it involves Freddy's sons just sweetens the deal for me."

"Plus," Kaylee pointed out, "We might run into Freddy en route, and I would lo-o-ove a chance to tail him for a while. He's a major recluse and not much is known about him, so getting him out of Vermillion is pretty great."

"And if he doesn't show up here?" Victoria asked.

"Then he doesn't show up," Gav finished. "It'll be a shame, but we still need to follow up on the Moony incident."

Beth spoke up. "I do know that Frem—Freddy, went through an ugly divorce."

Gav's eyebrow rose slightly. "Oh?" he asked. Kaylee too seemed interested.

"It happened quite a while ago, but the stories were in the _tabloids_," Beth sing-songed, grinning back at Gav. "Vee and I were too young to care when it was actually happening, but our mom always talked about gossipy things to other moms when we were growing up. The other papers figured it would be tasteless to run stories about it, but the Frem—Freddy, divorce was a huge deal."

"You'll have to tell me about that," Gav said. "Somewhere where we don't have to use words like Freddy and Moony. Let's head back to my room after lunch."

They ate the rest of their meal while discussing training tactics, a topic Victoria loved very much and didn't have the opportunity to expound upon normally. She shared a smile with Beth, feeling better and better about this admittedly strange situation. So far nothing too upsetting had come up, which was a relief.

That changed once they got to Gav's room. Victoria figured she'd pushed her luck earlier and had invoked Murphey's Law.

"I'll need electronic information at some point, so I'll get on that." Gav had said. "Kay will probably want to—"

Victoria's interest was immediately piqued. "Electronic information?"

Gav did a little double-take. "… Yeah, I'll need the—" he paused. "I'll need the Center's heal records."

Victoria frowned deeply. "Why on earth would you need those?"

Gav seemed surprised that she had to ask. "To see if Freddy's been in. It's the easiest, most straightforward way to know if he's even around here."

"It's also one of the least legal ways."

Everyone fell silent as she said that. The siblings cast an uncomfortable glance between themselves, and Victoria averted her gaze to Kaylee's Growlithe, which was out to listen at the door for lingering passerby. The Growlithe scratched behind its ears, and Gav cleared his throat and shifted in his seat.

Beth finally spoke up, sounding guiltily impressed. "You can do that?"

Victoria twisted uncomfortably. That was not the point, but count on Beth to first be stunned by technological wonders.

"Yeah," Gav said. To Victoria, he pointedly added, "and I've never been caught."

"Well, there's a first time for everything," she replied flatly, and more uncomfortable silence reigned.

Victoria took this moment to get lost in her thoughts. She felt bad for bringing these things up, but she couldn't keep her mouth shut about the issues she felt strongly about. After a moment, she tried to explain herself.

"It's not that I don't trust your skill, Gav." Gav regarded her evenly as she continued. "I'm just playing devil's advocate here. I hope you understand why."

This seemed to relax him marginally. "I do understand. It's fine. I just hope you realize that, ultimately, I _will _do what I think is best."

More silence. Victoria supposed that her line was supposed to be "_sure Gav! Whatever you say_." She definitely missed her cue.

"Sorry to interrupt… I know it's important, but, can we talk about it more later? I need to see the Gym. It is a _need_." She grinned hopefully, and the tension eased slightly. Victoria knew Beth could wait to sightsee, but her sister, like Kaylee, was at times incredibly shrewd. She had just saved the group hours of circular arguments.

Kaylee nodded, getting up and recalling her Pokemon. Victoria did not miss the pointed look she shot her, though. "Yeah, Beth. Good plan." Kaylee continued to shoot Victoria little glances as they got up to leave.

Victoria told herself not to stress out so much. She told herself that Gav and Kaylee had managed to go many years without trouble. She told herself she was being overbearing.

She told herself to ignore the growing cold knot of dread that increased with every step.

* * *

Soon Beth and Victoria were on their way walking around Cerulean. As the four of them had split off earlier, Gav vanished into his room, saying he needed to trouble-shoot the wireless on his PDA, and no one bothered him. Beth had tried to get Kaylee to come to the Gym with them initially, but the Fire-trainer had awkwardly expressed her dislike of the Cerulean Gym.

Beth was enjoying herself immensely, no doubt about that. It didn't stop her from reading her sister's subtle cues, though. Beth stopped them halfway to the Gym and yanked Victoria into a coffee shop instead, which confused her enormously.

"What's this about?" Victoria asked.

"You and Gav," Beth explained. "I'm a little worried."

Victoria sighed. "I know that wasn't exactly a pleasant exchange we had, but nothing is wrong." At Beth's disbelieving look, Victoria widened her eyes a bit. "No, really. He said he'd do what he wants, and I can't stop it. Nothing more to discuss, really."

Her lingering annoyance must have shown. Damn her sister for knowing her so well. "Ah-huh. And you're okay with this."

"No," Victoria admitted. "But, I'll have to learn to be."

"Oh, listen to you," Beth said, frustrated. "Gav wouldn't want you being like that. He respects your opinion, can't you tell? He doesn't want you to just be quiet and squirm."

Victoria was squirming now, but for a different reason. "And how exactly do you know this? We've only recently become friends with them."

"They're honest people," Beth said simply. "And you know what? So are we. So don't stop being honest. We didn't chase these people down to feel uncomfortable around them. We did it because we like them. And want to help. And Vee, you help by bringing up your thoughts. No such thing as a dumb question, they say."

Victoria was momentarily stunned. Normally it was she giving Beth the long lectures. "What's gotten into you?"

Beth grinned. "I'm in my element," she said, and Victoria groaned at the pun.

Beth wasn't quite done yet, though. "Just, Vee… remember that this means a lot to them. So, bring stuff up… but with them, not against them."

Victoria knew that last sentence would have to become her new motto. She looked at her sister, who was glancing briefly at a Horsea painting. Victoria impulsively gave her a quick hug.

"Okay. No more cranky witch mode, I promise. Now, let's find you that Gym."

* * *

When the sisters returned, they were a bit tanner. The sun was scorching outside, even for a sunset. Beth was worriedly playing with her spaghetti-straps, murmuring about tan lines, but Victoria was searching for Kaylee and Gav in the Center, which was one big dark blur to her sun-drenched eyes. After much blinking and squinting, some shapes emerged, and soon she was able to navigate over to a corner table where Kaylee and Gav were sipping milk shakes. Gav had a very remote look on his face, deliberately expressionless and unreadable. Victoria read it at once.

"You already did it."

Gav glanced up at her, studying her face for a moment, then he sighed and put his hands out in a _what do you want from me_? pose. "Yeah, I did. You ought to be our lie detector. Not that I was planning on lying about it, but still."

Victoria bit back her comment, something she was very uncomfortable with, and something she had been forced to do very often. "Well." That was all she said as she sat down across from him and Beth slid into her seat beside her.

"Anyway… he's not here yet," Gav said simply. "We're just sort of hanging out and people-watching now."

Victoria caught Gav's eye once or twice and nibbled on her lip, trying to word her questions in her head before bringing them up. She did this for two reasons; one was to make sure she asked the questions in code, and the other was to make sure she worded them tactfully.

"So," she finally said many long minutes later, "are we going to be following Freddy to his function when he shows up?"

Kaylee cast a glance at Gav and opened her mouth, but stopped herself from saying anything. Gav sighed.

"Ultimately, yes. Not right away, though."

"How will we go about… not imposing on him?" Victoria asked. "I mean, we don't want our presence to... interfere with him."

It was very awkwardly worded, but Gav picked up on her question, even as if Kaylee frowned at her in confusion. _How do we follow Fremont without him knowing it? _"We'll just have to be subtle," Gav said. "If things get awkward, we can always take a rain check."

Victoria fidgeted. Beth was finally coming down off her Cerulean high and was pensively watching each face at the table, reserving her commentary for now. The four sat in silence for a while, and Victoria and Beth ordered cups of water.

Victoria tried to remember what Beth had told her. With them, not against them. At this rate, she'd have to get the phrase tattooed on her forehead.


	22. Chapter 22 Victoria

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 22

* * *

Victoria Larson

Victoria had to admit, she was actually enjoying herself a little.

After the issue about the Center heal records had blown over, Beth had been able to convince the team to take a little time to enjoy the city. So far her sister had convinced them all to play laser tag, see the latest smash-hit movie (_The Chansey of a Lifetime_, a sugary-sweet story about a Chansey working in an E.R. ward that almost made Victoria vomit), and go swimming numerous times. Kaylee often expressed her displeasure with the pools, since her Pokemon could not really enjoy themselves here, and Beth accused Kaylee of being a Fire-type Pokemon herself. "What can I say?" Kaylee had asked as she basked in the sun, nowhere near the water. "I'm not big on 'wet.'"

Gav and Victoria had stayed true to form and not spoken any more about the heal records. Victoria knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gav was still using his PDA to hack the records every two days or so, just to see if Fremont had been in yet. Victoria tried to turn a blind eye and keep herself unconcerned and aloof.

"I don't know, what would be the best way for us to battle?" Kaylee asked, frowning and scribbling on a napkin. "We'd pretty much all have a type advantage over someone."

Right now the four trainers were out back behind the Pokemon Center, itching for a battle. Beth and Kaylee had had a battle a few days back, but now they had to put their heads together to determine the best way to get experience for their teams without ending this session in a whole bunch of K.O.

Gav was strong against Kaylee, just in the sense that his Rock-types could laugh off her Fire attacks with ease. He was, however, cripplingly weak against Beth and Victoria, both of whom would probably bring an end to that battle swiftly. However, Victoria's Grass-types would be taken out in a blink by Kaylee's fire, and Kaylee had learned the other day that her two Growlithe did not stand a chance against Beth's Water-types. Beth also frequently lost to her sister, her Water-types quickly sapped by the plants. It was a bit of a trainer conundrum.

"I vote we just let them all out for a big free-for-all. See what they do," Kaylee eventually said, dropping the pen. There's no way any of us can have a balanced battle otherwise."

"All of them?" Beth asked incredulously. "I've got Poliwag, Goldeen and Staryu. Vee's got Oddish, Bellsprout and Metapod. That's sort of a lot of—"

"Metapod?" Kaylee interjected. "Last I checked, Metapod wasn't a Grass-type."

Victoria looked off to the side, sure that Beth would expound on the story of Metapod whether or not she wanted her to. Sure enough, Beth grinned and shot Victoria a mischievous look, and Victoria sighed and sat down.

"Vee caught Metapod by mistake," she said. "She was aiming for what she thought was a Weepinbel."

"Honest mistake," Victoria interrupted. "The Metapod was in a bush that looked just like one."

"Wait," Gav said, unable to keep the small amused smile from his face. "Are you telling me you spent time attacking and lowering the health of a bush?"

"You know what—" Victoria started threateningly, but Beth stopped her, laughing.

"We were new trainers, really young," Beth explained. "Anyway, Vee threw the Pokeball and caught… something, but the bush was still there, so… anyway, it was Metapod, and she never, _ever _trains it. It is the Eternal Metapod."

Kaylee laughed. "That is classic!" At the look on Victoria's face, she tried to look serious. "I mean, honest mistake." The grin slowly took over again though, and Gav seemed to be struggling very hard to stifle laughter as well.

Obviously, after this three-way gang up against her, Victoria had a grin on her face when it was time for their four-way battle. She loved a little healthy competition, and even more so when the people she was fighting wouldn't stop teasing her about Metapod.

"No, really. Anyone could make that mistake. I tried to feed PokeChow to the 2:22 train in Saffron once. I mean, they're both long, shiny… I thought it was Onix." Gav gave Victoria a sly grin as he teased her, but something he had said caught her attention much quicker.

"You have an Onix?" she asked, her voice and face betraying the fact that she was impressed.

"Yeah," Gav said. "I don't bring him out a lot, though. He's a little distinctive and we try not to draw too much attention." At Beth's eager look, Gav shook his head. "Sorry, won't be using him in this battle, either."

"How strong is he?" Victoria asked, curious as she unhooked two Pokeballs from her belt.

"Not very, these days. He's pretty old."

"Mmm," Victoria said noncommittally, but inside she was feeling a little shown-up. Old or not, the Onix sounded like it was very many levels stronger than her toughest, which was Bellsprout around level 16. Oddish trailed behind, closer to 14, and Metapod… she honestly had no clue what Metapod was even up to. She fed it and all, but that was about where her knowledge of it ended.

Beth sent out her four Pokemon, which were lower level than Victoria's since Beth had to train more of them. Her highest was the temperamental Poliwag, clocking in around 13. From there Staryu was next, at 11 or 12, and finally Goldeen at 10. All four of the trainers had to sort of eyeball the levels, or get them checked at the Pokemon Centers, since they were all sans-Pokedex.

"I'll never get used to Pokeball tech," Kaylee said, releasing her two Growlithe and staring at Goldeen, which was floating along in a gravity-defying patch of water. "It doesn't look real."

"But it is!" Beth said, walking over and putting her hand in the water. She withdrew it, shaking water drops at Kaylee, who screamed playfully and jumped back.

"Ew, Goldeen water!"

"Technology _is _pretty amazing," Gav agreed, sending out Geodude and Cubone. "It's lucky Goldeen doesn't have the same kind of gills as a normal fish, though… that little water patch wouldn't hold enough oxygen for it for long, otherwise."

"Oooh, you so smart," Kaylee said in a slangy accent, punching him in the arm. "I still say that's technology at its creepiest."

"We gonna fight, or what?" Victoria asked, grinning. Gav, Kaylee, and Beth soon matched hers, and they began.

The battle got off to a bit of an awkward start, since their original plan was a free-for all. Eventually though, it wound up being a two-on-two battle, as Beth and Kaylee wound up squaring off against Victoria and Gav. It wound up being a situation where Kaylee would go after Victoria, but Gav would go after Kaylee to defend her. Beth would then attack Gav to watch out for Kaylee, and Victoria would attack Beth. Halfway through, Kaylee called over the noise and said, "we've created a never-ending Pokemon battle cycle! We should submit this to the world records!"

Instead of responding, Victoria shouted, "Bellsprout, duck!" The Grass-type just barely rolled away, limber and flexible, and a burst of flame shot overhead. A moment later Cubone leapt straight through the flame and delivered a Bone Club attack right to the middle of one Growlithe's head. Growlithe yipped in pain and retreated, and Staryu sent a stream of water towards Cubone, who ducked low to give Victoria's Oddish a chance to leap into the direct path of the spray. Oddish sighed in delight as it received a refreshing watering, then absorbed energy from Staryu. Staryu's gem began to flash in warning, and the second Growlithe leapt forward to bite Oddish.

"Geodude!" Gav called, pointing. Geodude opened its arms and grabbed Growlithe by the face, allowing Oddish a chance to flee.

Victoria had to admit, she had never had this much fun in a battle before. Normally when she fought Beth it was very one-sided, and Victoria went very easy on her so it would at least be a longer battle. She only really got to unleash her Pokemon's full potential on wilds, and that was not as satisfying. Pokemon paired with trainers performed so much better than those out in the wild. It showed in their shrewd eyes, quick movements, and brilliant strategies.

Kaylee in particular was a battle pro. Growlithe bit down on Geodude, keeping it trapped in place and incapacitating one of Gav's two Pokemon in the process. Meanwhile the other Growlithe followed her orders and rolled aside from Cubone's Tackle, only to snap its jaws on Cubone's bone and tug it out of the small Pokemon's hand. Cubone pitched a fit and leapt on Growlithe, attempting to get the bone back, and Growlithe threw it. Cubone ran to fetch, and in that moment of vulnerability, Kaylee shouted, "Ember!"

Oddish was hit full-blast with the small flames, and it was lucky that it had recently been showered with water. The water drops turned to steam and smoke, and Oddish screamed in fright as it rolled away.

"Bellsprout, grab Cubone!" Bellsprout let out its vines and grabbed Cubone around the middle, from where it had just retrieved its bone. Then Bellsprout shot the Ground-Type back into the battle, aiming it for the Growlithe that was assaulting Oddish. Cubone landed on the back of Growlithe's head just as Gav shouted "Bone Club!" and Beth said, "Water Gun!"

Right as Cubone was going to club Growlithe, a jet of water sprayed it off. However, the water also got Growlithe wet, and whining, the dog Pokemon stopped attacking Oddish. Victoria went forward to heal Oddish while Kaylee shouted, "hey, watch where you aim that thing!" at Beth.

It was a confusing, delightful battle, with unforeseen tricks and snap-decisions. By the time it was done, they and their Pokemon were utterly spent. The four dropped them off at the Center, where the receptionist smiled. "Have fun?" she asked, observing their charred, soaked clothing. They merely nodded and staggered back to their respective rooms to change.

* * *

It was about two days later that "Freddy" made his appearance.

Gav had been continuing to check the heal records periodically, and Victoria had eased up on this particular venture a lot. They hadn't been arrested yet, after all, and that was always a good thing. Gav was able to notify them the morning that he saw Nathan Fremont's name and lineup on the records. He had been in at 5 a.m. and had not been back since. The four trainers camped out in the Center's café, ordering drinks and sipping them slowly, talking and resting. They planned remain until he showed up again, and knew it could be a while.

They had all familiarized themselves with the photo of Nathan Fremont, so when he strode in through the Center's automatic doors, bringing with him a gust of humid evening air, all four of them glanced to him very briefly before glancing away. Victoria smoothed her hair nonchalantly and let her eyes wander over to a painting near the Center's counter, where Fremont was now standing in line. A mousy girl received four Pokeballs from the receptionist and moved aside, and Fremont stepped forward.

"They been back yet?" he asked, and Victoria frowned to herself, content that she could do so without alerting him to the strange expression. Fremont was facing away from all of them, so they could watch him a little closer.

The receptionist shook her head and answered, a little too quietly to be heard. Fremont shook his head to whatever she said.

"Naw, don't. They can't train forever, they'll be back. You call me when they're in." He rapped his knuckles on the desk, giving the receptionist long look. Victoria got the feeling he wasn't intentionally threatening her, but that this gruff mannerism was just his default setting. Fremont strolled back out to the doors and stepped outside, stopping to turn his face up to the sun.

"Maybe we ought to just go visit Freddy now," Gav said lightly, finishing off his drink.

Victoria's heart did a little flip-flop, but in spite of her strong misgivings, she did not want to argue this time. Curiosity was indeed, a powerful emotion.

* * *

Nathan Fremont meandered his way around town, apparently unaware that he had four people tailing him. They split up: Victoria and Beth went off for a window-shopping stroll, Kaylee for a jog, and Gav for a tourist jaunt with a Cerulean map. They slowly followed Fremont through the city, and, eventually, to the edge of Route 4. As he headed into the tall grass, crunching noisily with large boots, the four trainers met up and glanced around before communicating in hushed whispers.

"So now what?" Victoria asked. Her legs were aching from all the standing and walking, but her heart was thudding. "Are we following him into the bushes?"

"You don't have to," Gav said at once, not sounding angry at all but more concerned. "I really think it might be best if—"

"Shhhh," Beth said, staring off in the direction Fremont had gone. "Can we please adopt a more casual stance?" She motioned to their half-time huddle, and they relaxed a little, sliding their hands into their pockets uncomfortably.

"We're coming with you," Victoria breathed. "If only for extra eyes."

Gav shrugged, but his expression told his misgivings clearly even in the twilight. The four of them headed casually past the crunchy, loud grass and around the area in a roundabout way, keeping their ears peeled. Victoria started to notice ridiculous things; Kaylee twitched her black ponytail over her shoulder in a fidgety way when she was tense—Gav kept his hand firmly in his pocket, she supposed at the ready for a photo op with his PDA.

They hadn't taken more than a fifteen minute stroll when the slightest little whisper of disturbed grass behind them gave Victoria slight pause. She turned her head a little, expecting to see a scurrying Nidoran.

She almost had a heart attack when the moonlight gave way to the silhouette of a large, broad-shouldered man.

There was one thing Victoria could pride herself on, besides her breakdown-inducing sarcasm. She was damn quick on her feet.

"Guys!" she hissed, shaking Beth and Gav and fixing Fremont with her best starstruck jaw-drop. Thankfully Beth had a similar reaction of shock, though in Beth's case the shock was of course more likened to fear. Gav and Kaylee kept their faces blank, but Victoria could almost _feel _the hard, sharp edges of their anger at her. She could practically read their fevered thoughts: _what the hell are you doing, Victoria?_

"So," Fremont said, his voice calm and casual and ten thousand times more frightening for that, "care to tell me why you four have been tailing me?"

Victoria dropped her face into her hands and groaned. She desperately hoped the others were just remaining dumbfounded. She kicked at Gav lightly and said, "I told you!"

"Yeah, but—" Gav began, blessedly playing along with their fake conversation.

"Now we look like freaks!" Victoria summoned a blush, which wasn't hard, given how hard her heart was thundering. She wasn't sure if he could see it in the twilight, but it couldn't hurt. "We're really, really sorry, Mr. Fremont."

Fremont didn't say anything, and Victoria tugged out the green pad of thin stationary she normally kept in her pocket for emergency list-writing.

"We're sort of fans," she said beatifically, an awkward smile coming to her face. She could sense the change of atmosphere from her friends at once. Beth looked down at the ground, which was probably the best. She was a terrible liar, and letting her hair cover her face would be wise right now. "If we haven't, y'know, totally weirded you out… would you mind?" she asked, extending the paper and a pen to him.

Fremont's eyes were blue. They were very, very light blue, and they scared Victoria immensely. He had no expression for maybe a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Yeah, you guys _are_ a bunch of freaks!" he agreed, taking the paper and pen. "Who should I make these out to?"

"Ladia," Victoria said, smiling and pointing to herself. "And Mandy," she said, indicating Beth.

"I'm Lawrence," Gav said, rather tonelessly. "And, I'm really sorry, Mr. Fremont."

"Courtney," Kaylee said quietly from behind him.

Fremont asked about the spelling of certain names, then handed the paper back to Victoria, who beamed at him and bit her lip. "This is great, thanks so much."

"Well, only sorry it's just me and not Vince," Fremont said, for his credit managing to sound somewhat fond of the apparently flaky Vermillion Leader.

"You ought to be the Leader," Kaylee said passionately, putting on the perfect act of a temperamental girl who had just overstepped a boundary. She pulled a mildly mortified face and stepped back. "Sorry."

"Hey now," Fremont said, but if Victoria knew people even a little, she'd say that comment pleased him on some level. "Vince's got his merits. Though I appreciate the compliment." He ran his hand across his chin, smiling distantly. Then all at once his expression grew hard. "You might not want to make a habit of randomly wandering around at night," Fremont mentioned. "I see that you're trainers, but you never know. You might get hurt." He stared at them unblinkingly for a moment longer, then clapped. The sound echoed and Victoria felt Beth jump a little beside her. "Well, you've got what you came for?"

"Yeah," Victoria said again, a laugh in her tone. "Thanks a lot for not siccing Jolteon on us!"

Fremont's booming laugh followed them through the darkness as the four of them did their best to stroll casually back to the Center, struggling to make small talk all the way.

* * *

"Is that how _all _espionage missions go?" Victoria demanded the moment the four had locked themselves in Gav's room.

"No," Gav said, unable to convey any emotion other than exhaustion. "Not at all."

"We were being quiet," Kaylee said, shaking her head and sitting down on the floor. "And how the—how did he even _see_ us throughout town? I don't think he looked over at me even once."

"Me either," Beth said. "I only ever saw the back of his head."

"Me too," Gav agreed. "But he's probably wise to people tracking him. We know this now; he knows the signs, what to look for." He let out a breath and closed his eyes.

Victoria was full of frenetic energy, but struggled to channel it some way other than snarling. She wound up pacing the floor. "Well, pardon the million dollar question, but what now?"

"We don't follow him," Gav said.

"Clearly_._"

"We figure out more about his kids."

Victoria felt a surge of frustration anew, and luckily Kaylee spoke up before she got a chance to say anything.

"He's looking for them… that much is clear from what he said earlier. And the 'no, just call me' thing? He doesn't want them to know he's here, and it's not just for some surprise reunion."

"Yeah," Beth contributed bleakly.

"Doesn't mean his kids are clean," Gav pointed out. "Just keep that in mind."

"Hopefully they aren't insane stealth ninjas like him," Kaylee grumbled, her face curdling into a scowl. "How does a man that size sneak around?"

"That's another thing," Gav pointed out at once, leaning forward and pointing to Kaylee. "What you said, just now. He was crashing around like a Rhyhorn when he first started into the brush. He was trying to throw us off, make us think he was a loud guy who would be easily heard. That's how he wound up sneaking up behind us. He's smarter than I had hoped."

"Glad we know this _now,_" Victoria grumbled, but the edge of her anger was diminishing. "So, his kids. Hopefully _they_ won't give me a heart attack."

"There are two of them too, so we can split up better. For now though, sleep. We'll regroup tomorrow."

Victoria went back to her room, waited for ten minutes at the door, then exited and went straight back to Gav's. She rapped quietly on the door and didn't have to wait long before he opened it.

"C'mon in. I was expecting you."

Victoria didn't question that, and pulled the door shut behind her. They looked at each other for a moment, then averted their eyes.

"I'm sorry for freaking out. This is just, really new. And that was not at all a pleasant experience back there."

Gav laughed softly. "You don't have to tell me that. I know most guys pull this line, but, 'that's never happened to me before!'"

Victoria gave him her grade A withering look at the horrendous joke, and Gav gave her back a tired smile. "Honestly though, we really have to think about you and Beth staying out of the espionage for the most part. I know you want to help, but Kay and I are used to a two-person team when it comes to the field work. Hope you understand that, for now."

Victoria nodded. "Hey, I'm all down with that. Just, it would be nice if you could send me text updates or something. That way Beth and I will know you're okay."

There was another brief little pause, and Gav's smile turned mischievous.

"Aw, Vee, didn't know you cared," he said, gently teasing her. Victoria snorted and turned to leave, and just in time. She didn't really want to be seen blushing twice in one night.

"Goodnight, Gavasaur."

* * *

_Author's Note: I broke this chapter up into two because it was HUGE. Therefore I am posting both chapters at the same time. Remember to read the prior chapter, 21!_


	23. Chapter 23 Jason

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 22

* * *

Jason Fremont

"Are you going to use Sleep Powder again?" Gina asked from somewhere behind Jason. It took him a while to comprehend that she'd said something.

"Not yet. Why?"

"Just, warn me. I do not want to be anywhere near you."

Jason rolled his eyes and turned around, breaking his staring contest with the tall grass. He had thought there was movement in there, but knowing his luck it was probably just another murderous Spearow. "Are you ever going to forgive me for that?"

"Just let me rub it in for a few more days," Gina said, but smiled teasingly at him.

Jason had been out in the tall grass of Route 24 all day. This was, of course, after almost a full week of being out in the tall grass of Route 24. If there was one thing he could say for himself, he was persistent.

Jason had been tirelessly training Bulbasaur to perfect the Pokemon-catching wonder that was Sleep Powder. Of course Bulbasaur had a learning curve, since it was a new attack, and Jason reasoned that his Pokemon was doing quite well. In reality he realized he was in denial and that Bulbasaur had some pretty intense aiming problems. This had been evidenced by the stray Sleep Powder that had shot directly back from Bulbasaur and had instead hit Gina square in the face. There was one piece of good news to that incident, at least; Bulbasaur's Sleep Powder was effective. Jason had never seen someone hit the ground so fast.

Gina, once she had regained consciousness, had forgiven him pretty quickly but promised him that she would be teasing him about this for a good week straight. It was coming up on the end of the week, so Jason figured he'd be off the hook soon.

He was grateful, at least, that she wasn't teasing him about the single most painful trainer blunder he had made yet; the missed opportunity that was a single wild Abra they had encountered earlier in the week. Jason had hit it with Sleep Powder, which was a miracle considering Bulbasaur's lack of training at the time. The thing had, of course, fallen asleep, but Jason had spent a good fifteen seconds fumbling with the empty Pokeball at his belt, struggling to unlatch it. Apparently the affect time for Sleep Powder varied greatly. On wild Ginas, it appeared to be half an hour. On that particular Abra, it was about 20 seconds. The Abra had woken up, looked around, and Teleported right as Jason had thrown the ball. His resultant rant fest had been one to go down in record books. He was still quite sore about it and Gina and Orion knew not to bring it up.

Orion right now was checking his phone a little ways away from them, a past time he seemed to have taken up a great deal. Jason barely gave this any mind, chalking it up to flirty texting with Zahlia. Jason told himself he would go back to being a good brother (which of course meant teasing the daylights out of Orion) as soon as he made this Abra catch.

Gina finally brought this phone obsession to light as Jason scanned the grass, moving slightly off to another patch with Bulbasaur in tow.

"Orion, what are you doing?"

The sound of Orion's phone snapping shut came to Jason's ears, and he made a frustrated sound. He hoped their idle talk was not scaring away more Abras. It took a while for Orion to use his words.

"Just, haven't heard from Zahlia in a while, wondering how she's doing."

Jason smirked to himself, emerging from his trainer trance to make a face at Orion. "Ooh, what did you say to her?"

Orion nibbled on the inside of his cheek. "Nothing! I don't think I said anything."

Gina gave Jason a pointed look. "That's not nice," she said.

"You _offended _her," Jason said, wiggling his eyebrows. Orion rolled his eyes at Jason, but still looked worried.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, bro."

Jason waved his hand at Orion, a grin returning to his face. "Naw, hell. You're like the most polite person in the universe. You know that. She's just busy."

"I know," Orion said, but he didn't sound entirely sure.

Gina and Orion muttered to one another for a few more minutes, but Jason could simply not be bothered to pay more attention. Bulbasaur was stretching again, but Jason had all his senses trained on the tall grass as he continued to creep through it. He caught sight of a flash of movement and his heart leapt, but it turned out to be a Rattata. While he was contemplating it, his mind tuned in to their conversation.

"… still, wouldn't be a bad idea to get out of here, soon."

"I guess. But, I mean, I don't want you or Jason to feel you need to rush your journeys."

"Eh, it's not the end of the world if we go out of order, or head off early. We can always come back."

Jason turned to face his brother and friend, watching their body language. Gina was lounging against a tree and arranging rocks into a smiley-face with the toe of her shoe, and Orion was fiddling uncomfortably with his phone, glancing around.

"Yeah, but still."

"But nothing," Gina said, looking up to him. "The stuff with your dad is pretty dang important."

Jason couldn't stop the small smile that came to his face. He had a feeling he was about to witness a classic nice-off between two of the most considerate people he'd ever met in his life.

Sure enough: "It's really my business, though." Orion glanced at Jason suddenly, and Jason was caught in the act of listening in. There was a pause, and Orion finished, regarding both he and Gina. "Jason's under Mom's custody until he turns 16. I'm the only one who really has anything to worry about from Dad."

"What are you suggesting?" Jason asked, at the same moment Gina said, "so, this means what?"

Orion looked so uncomfortable Jason almost felt sorry for him. What he said next though changed Jason's mind.

"You two seemed perfectly fine before I entered the picture," he explained. "So, I'm just letting you know, it might be best if I—"

"Uh-uh," Jason said. "No way."

Gina also ganged up on him. "Come on, really? You think we'd want you to leave?"

"Nope," Jason said.

"Too bad," Gina agreed.

Orion's distress seemed to grow, especially under the tag-team pressure. "Guys, be reasonable."

Gina pulled out Jason's old excuse: "We're twelve. Besides, this is perfectly reasonable. You're a friend, and in Jason's case, family. I mean, I haven't known you guys for long but you didn't know me back in Pallet. I didn't have a lot by way of good friends. I'm not planning on ditching you and we both know Jason will knock you out before letting you head off."

"Try to understand," Orion began. "If there's any—"

"Wait!" Jason demanded, as he had been demanding on-and-off for the past week. "I hear something."

To be honest, he was expecting another Pidgey, Rattata, or Spearow by now. When the grass rustled and a drowsy Abra poked its head out, Jason froze up for one split second, convinced he was hallucinating.

Luckily Bulbasaur knew what was expected of him by now. Bulbasaur stepped forward and let out a large puff of Sleep Powder into the air, where it drifted down lazily upon the head of the groggy Pokemon. Jason could hear Gina scrambling away from it in the background. The Abra looked up at the stuff for a moment, jerked very slightly in alarm, and fell over onto its face. Jason proceeded to have a mini seizure.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" he said, dissolving into disbelief. "It's asleep!"

"Lower its health!" Orion coached, and Gina demanded, "What are you waiting for?"

Jason had unlatched one of his empty Pokeballs. "What if that wakes it up!"

"You can't do _nothing_!"

"_Agh_!" Jason made up his mind in a split second and chucked the Pokeball towards the Abra. Abra was transformed into red light and absorbed into the ball, which landed and wiggled perhaps once. Then it burst open and the Abra re-emerged, this time lounging on its back. Jason cursed under his breath, but it was still asleep.

"Attack!" Gina said, incredulous.

"One more!" he said, and threw his second one.

"What?" Orion demanded, but Abra had already been absorbed up into the second ball. It wiggled and flashed on the ground slightly longer, and this time when Abra broke free it had one arm over its face. It was something straight out of a slap-stick comedy. Jason hesitated for a moment, looking at Bulbasaur.

"Alright, that was dumb. Bulbasaur, I need you to hit it with a Tackle, then jump out of the way, real fast, okay?"

Bulbasaur was looking at Jason like he was insane, but did as it was told. It galloped forward and bashed against the Abra, then rolled aside surprisingly nimbly for a creature with a large plant on its back. Jason threw the Pokeball, and just as it landed beside the Abra, the Abra woke up, startled. It was absorbed up right as it started its Teleport, and the ball landed on the ground. Jason felt nauseous as he watched it shake back and forth, more violently than the first two times. Everyone in the clearing held their breaths.

When the ball stopped moving, Jason's shouts and hollers were heard all throughout Route 24. Other trainers and hikers in the area even came rushing over to see if something was wrong.

* * *

"You are such a freak," Gina told him for the ninth time, struggling to breathe through crippling laughter. "Will you stop that?"

Jason had been unable to stop slowly pulling out Abra's Pokeball, pointing at it, and putting on a frightening grin throughout random points in the conversation. He had been doing this periodically for the past hour, and while Orion had gotten over it pretty quickly, Gina for some reason found it to be the most hilarious thing in the world. Jason didn't even know why she was so often struck by an incurable case of the giggles; he personally didn't think it was _that _funny, but it sure was entertaining to watch her reaction.

Gina calmed down eventually, taking some deep breaths and looking at Jason with suspicion all over her face for a few moments. He put on an innocent face, which just made her narrow her eyes even more. She was just about to take a sip from her glass of water when he did it again and she crumpled over, putting her glass down and laying her head down on her arm, laughing. She managed to say, "I hate you."

Orion mostly kept to himself during their meal. He would occasionally offer a friendly word here or there, particularly when Gina went through her lineup and realized she had Charmander, Nidoran, Pidgey, and her most recent catch, a Sandshrew.

"Wow," she said, shaking her head. "I think I've done it. I think I've captured every Pokemon possible that's weak against this Gym."

"Well, not Pidgey, per se," Orion reasoned. "You've been training it a lot, haven't you?"

"Yeah," Jason interjected. He had been about to pull his Abra-Pokeball grin again but changed his mind. "She's developed a new complex from that Amaris guy. It's the Buff Pidgey Complex."

Gina did a double-take to Jason, frowning deeply. "_What?_"

"You've seen a Pidgey that is buffer than yours, and now you must stop at nothing to make your Pidgey the buffest of them all."

Gina just stared at him in disbelief and Orion scratched his chin. "You know, I used to think that saying was 'the buffest of the mall'," he said.

"The _mall_?" Jason asked, staring at Orion in disappointed disbelief. "You're such a _girl._"

"Mall or no, and complexes aside, thank you, Orion," Gina said. "I do hope that Pidgey will be enough. Nidoran's not a Ground-type yet, either… I sometimes forget that, so… maybe Nidoran can help, too."

"Good plan," Orion agreed. Gina, clearly lulled into a false sense of security, took a sip of water. Jason lifted the Pokeball and grinned—Gina attempted to punch him for causing her to snort water painfully up her nose.

* * *

It was a few days after Jason's Abra catch, and he and Gina were just finishing up a Pokemon battle. It was one of their first legitimate ones, and so far it wasn't going so well.

"I don't know," Gina admitted. "I'm not really comfortable with this."

"How's he ever gonna learn?" Jason asked, putting his hands together in front of him. "Pleeease, Gina?"

Gina stared down at the sleepy Abra, her disturbed expression mirroring Charmander's. "It… it just seems unfair. He's got like, one move, and it's not even combative. Not even Charmander wants to whoop him."

Charmander nodded once, glancing behind his shoulder at Gina and shifting his weight between both feet. Abra yawned.

Jason crossed his arms and thought. "Well… well, I guess he can watch, the way Amar—the way Pokemon sometimes do," he said, stopping his sentence halfway through when he saw the twitch that came to her left eye. He really had to remember not to say that name around her. "Yo Bulbasaur!"

Bulbasaur looked over at Jason from its spot in the shade, where it had been relaxing with Gina's Nidoran and Sandshrew. Sandshrew was a little tweaky; Jason had told Gina it had OCD. She'd denied it at first, but now she admitted she was changing her mind. Sandshrew was digging a series of perfectly round holes in a straight line, and Nidoran and Bulbasaur had been watching it passively. Jason had to wonder if all Sandshrew were a little touched in the head.

"Bulbasaur, come on!" he said again, and this time his Pokemon rolled its eyes and got up, stretching before heading over to him very slowly.

"You gonna keep Charmander in the fight?" Jason asked uncertainly. Gina thought about it, but shook her head.

"Naw, I'll call Nidoran over too just to tick her off."

Nidoran heard this, sighed softly, and got to her feet. Jason caught her giving Gina stink eye.

Soon the battle was finally underway, and although it was technically for Abra's benefit, Jason couldn't shake the feeling his newest Pokemon had fallen asleep.

"Vine Whip!" he ordered, and Bulbasaur paused for just a fraction of a second before executing the attack against Gina's Nidoran. Nidoran rolled to avoid it, but still got the brunt of the lashings. It made a squeak of protest and charged forward, obeying Gina's shouted "Double Kick!"

Jason was not a fan of Double Kick, and neither was Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur flipped over onto its back, landing uncomfortably on its plant, and wiggled furiously to right itself after the attack. Nidoran returned to Gina's side, rubbing its face on the grass to soothe the marks from the Vine Whip. Nidoran glanced at Jason before making some sort of sound at Bulbasaur, and Bulbasaur smiled and grunted back. It seemed like an inside joke, and at their trainers' expense.

"Do you get the feeling our Pokemon don't really like fighting each other?" Gina asked.

"Yeah, I got that impression," Jason agreed. "I think we've spoiled them."

"Spoiled?" Gina asked, as she reached down to (carefully) pet Nidoran. She avoided the poison pins and scratched behind Nidoran's ears. "I don't think having Pokemon beat each other up is spoiling, really."

"Well, that's the whole point of training," Jason said, shrugging. "I personally feel that Pokemon are pretty competitive normally. You see how many wilds are attacking us all the time."

"Oh, no, no question there," she agreed, now spraying Potion on Nidoran. Their battle appeared to be on a hiatus. "It still makes me feel sort of bad though."

"I can see that," Jason allowed. He kneeled by Bulbasaur. "How's your head, buddy?" Bulbasaur headbutted his knee, causing Jason to tip off balance and fall backwards onto his butt. Gina laughed and Bulbasaur played innocent.

"Hey Jason?" Gina said suddenly, pulling Jason out of his glaring contest with Bulbasaur. "I think I want to challenge Lily today."

Jason did a minor double-take. "You—you do? Are you, uh, ready?"

"Not sure," Gina said, shrugging. "But, y'know, Lily seems like a really cool lady. I'm not as freaked out about the possibility of losing to her. You know?"

"No," Jason said honestly, as they got up and started walking back into town. "Losing at Gyms generally freaks me out."

* * *

"You know, if you're so confident, you can go first," Jason said to Gina, nudging her in the ribs.

"Do you want me to?" Gina asked. "I didn't realize. I can go first."

"No," Jason said, sticking out his tongue. "I call dibs."

Gina just blinked at him. "You are so weird."

Orion had brought along a newspaper to read in the stands while they waited their turn for the battles. Jason couldn't help being incredibly impressed the more he saw of the fights. Lily might be an old lady, but she was one _skilled_ old lady. She was also very fast in her battle orders, and Jason was rather enjoying watching the trainers sweat as they struggled to keep up. He of course realized that soon he would be one of those trainers down there, sweating and struggling not to lose, but for now he could enjoy the show.

Lily's Seadra used Hydro Pump on a rather skilled Goldeen, and even though Goldeen was Water-type, it did crushing amounts of damage. Jason hadn't thought water could be deafening, but he was so wrong. With his hands over his ears, he wondered if he would need a hearing aide by the time he got to the final Gym, since so far both of his experiences there had been a cacophony of sound.

"Better luck next time, Sally!" Lily called to the shaken and pale girl who couldn't manage to say anything back. She waved at the young girl who headed to the door, escorted by a floating Staryu. "Next… Jason F.?"

Jason stood up so fast that he forgot he'd been holding Bulbasaur's Pokeball in his lap. It hit the ground and deployed, and Bulbasaur popped out, looking surprised. Jason fumbled to pick up the Pokeball and recalled his starter, embarrassed. He grinned down at Lily, who was smiling at him in return. He decided to try to make it a joke.

"Well! I guess now that you know my Pokemon you'll be picking something really tough!"

"Oh, I won't have to," Lily responded, with a surprising amount of swagger for an older woman. "Everything I have is 'really tough.'" Jason instantly changed his mind about her and liked her immensely.

Moments later he was down on the pool level, the stands towering above on either side. He felt, somehow, that more eyes were actually focused on him than on the prior battles. Perhaps it was just ego speaking, but it made Jason a little fidgety.

"Alright. One-on-one, or a traditional battle?"

"One, please," Jason said, thinking about his other Pokemon briefly. Besides Bulbasaur, only his Nidoran would potentially stand a chance here, and even that would be somewhat slim.

"Alright," Lily said, winking at him. A moment later she sent out a violet creature with ten pointed limbs and no discernible face. _Starmie… interesting. _Jason rubbed his hands together and cracked his neck, preparing himself even as Bulbasaur stood before him, doing the same thing. He was apparently picking up habits from his Pokemon.

"Starmie, Confuse Ray!"

Jason shouted, diving out of the way just as Bulbasaur did. "Dodge it!"

Bulbasaur almost made it away from the pounding pulse of rays, but did not quite manage it. Jason was in direct line as well, and cringed, waiting to feel the Supersonic feeling only multiplied by ten. When nothing happened he opened his eyes, and saw that Bulbasaur was on the ground with its head under its front paws, groaning. Jason felt unaffected by Confuse Ray, and was, ironically, confused.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked, an odd look on her face. She apparently did not understand why Jason had leapt aside.

"I, uh… Zubat… nevermind," he said suddenly. Perhaps this Starmie was better at aiming its attacks than random Zubat in Mt. Moon. Lily seemed even more perplexed by his strange, broken sentence.

Peering at Bulbasaur, Jason muttered to him, "You okay?"

Bulbasaur grunted and stood, swaying slightly and shaking its head out experimentally. It waited for its next order and Jason only hesitated for a second.

"Vine Whip!"

Starmie splashed down into the pool at once, and Bulbasaur's vines shot out to pursue it. One vine slapped against empty, open water, useless, but the other shot through the surface of the pool like a torpedo. Jason could hear a muted _thwok_! as it struck Starmie underwater. He glowed with pride and shouted, "Good job, Bulbasaur!"

"Swift!" Lily shouted, and Jason puzzled over that for one second, not sure how Starmie could possibly hear battle orders under water. A second later he had bigger things to worry about. He heard the attack coming, but couldn't see anything; Bulbasaur, too, seemed utterly stumped. It didn't quite have time to recall its vines before it was hit. Bulbasaur jerked left, right, then left again and tumbled backwards, rolling over and coming to a very painful halt. Jason gaped; Bulbasaur looked like it had been attacked by nothing.

"The hell?" he demanded, and quickly slapped a hand over his mouth. "Sorry, ma'am."

Lily didn't seem phased. "Swift hits no matter where your Pokemon is, Jason!" she said, grinning. "It's a wonderful attack, but I digress. Your move."

Jason had been engrossed in listening to this explanation, but now he darted over to Bulbasaur and pulled a Potion out of his pocket. He never thought a battle against an old woman with a type disadvantage would be so hard.

As he sprayed the Potion lightly on Bulbasaur, watching as its skin stopped looking so red and irritated, Jason coached. "Can't tell since he's underwater, but Vine Whip's gotta hurt. Just keep it up. You still confused?"

Bulbasaur tested itself by picking two feet off the ground, and then the other two. Satisfied, it shook its head at Jason in response and he grinned, slapping Bulbasaur's plant encouragingly. Bulbasaur looked offended at the gesture. "Go get 'im!"

Starmie exploded out of the water, and Jason watched with an open mouth as a wall of water arced gracefully up in the air. He had time to say, "oh crap," and cover his face just as it splashed down all over him and Bulbasaur, soaking the Gym floor. Somewhere through the sound, he could hear the _thwack_! of Vine Whip hitting target again. He opened his eyes and looked down at his green t-shirt, which was plastered to his skin. His blond spikes had fallen flat, and he was very grateful that Pokedexes were water-proof.

Bulbasaur, on the other hand, looked positively refreshed. It ruffled its leaves and went, "ah," but didn't have time to bask. Starmie was obeying Lily's next order of "Confuse Ray!" and Jason shouted, "Forward!" He hoped it made sense.

It did. Bulbasaur shot forward, darting dangerously close to the edge of the pool instead of trying to dodge sideways. The Ray shot right over him, missing him entirely, and Bulbasaur did not need to be told to use Vine Whip again.

"Oh dear," Lily said. She called Starmie back to her side of the Gym and Jason's heart sank as he saw her spraying some kind of Potion on it. He knew it was petty, but he pouted. In a perfect world, _he _would be the only one allowed to do that.

Lily was done, and sent Starmie back to the center of the pool.

"Leech it!" Jason cried, and Bulbasaur obeyed at once, as if that had been his idea, too. Sticky brown seeds erupted from its plant and sprayed all throughout the water. At first Starmie avoided all of them, and Jason was bitterly disappointed, but as Starmie shot forward for a Tackle attack, Jason saw it pick up many of them that were floating in the water.

Unfortunately, Bulbasaur was hit hard by the attack. Fortunately, no sooner had the damage been done when Starmie's seeds glowed softly and transferred soft, effervescent pollen over to Bulbasaur's plant. Bulbasaur grumbled, got to its feet, and executed Jason's Vine Whip attack.

When Starmie went down two Vine Whips later, Jason actually bent over and put his hands on his knees, hanging his head and letting out a huge breath. He had learned something new today, for sure… he would _not _rely solely on type advantage ever again. He'd pushed his luck incredibly, and knew Bulbasaur really ought to have been a few levels stronger before coming here. His win had been luck and pluck.

Lily swam over to him and deposited a Cascade Badge into his open hand. Jason beamed at her and bowed. "Thank you, ma'am!"

"Lily," she corrected, giving him a playful scolding look.

"Right, Lily," he said, darting over to Bulbasaur and picking the soggy Plant-type up. He himself was soaked to the skin though, and could not complain. The next thing he heard, which made him look up at the stands with a huge grin, was:

"Next up… Gina I.?"


	24. Chapter 24 Gina

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 24

* * *

Gina Ikeda

Gina gave Jason a soggy hug as he passed her in the stands. She pulled away from it laughing, her purple shirt now completely damp in the front. Just for good measure Jason shook his head out like a dog, and Gina yelled and waved her hands at him as little droplets pelted her. She made a face at him and he grinned his lopsided grin as he ran off to tackle Orion, who shouted, "No! Stay back!"

The smile had still not completely left Gina's face even as she stared down Lily at the poolside. This was the Gym she had known from the start would be hardest for her, but instead of her unbearable nerves in Pewter, all Gina felt was eager. She wondered if Jason's gung-ho nature was rubbing off on her, or if it was the fact that Lily just seemed so darn _nice. _It could also be that, in light of Orion and Jason's family issues, losing a battle was suddenly put into perspective as "not that big a deal."

Whatever it was, Gina felt good.

"You ready?" Lily called, stretching and standing up to face her at the opposite end of the pool.

"Yep!" Gina said, and sent out Nidoran. Nidoran stood calmly in the puddle of water near the pool's edge, flicking her large ears once or twice.

"Very well!" Lily said, and threw her own Pokeball into the pool. It drifted slowly down, and when it touched bottom, Gina gasped. It looked like the water had been dyed red; that was how large the field of light was. Gina's expression morphed from calm to confusion as something enormous formed under the water, and pushed up excess displaced water over the edge. A mini tsunami flooded up over Nidoran and Gina's knees, soaking them both for a moment. Gina glanced behind her, wondering what would happen to the Gym's interior, but she saw that two enormous drains in either corner of the Gym's entrance were sucking water back down into the underbelly of the building. When Gina turned back around, an enormous Tentacruel stared back at her. Her mouth fell open.

From up in the stands, she heard Jason cry, "What the heck? What level is that thing?"

"Only 16, believe it or not! You'll be fine," Lily said. Gina couldn't even see Lily from behind it. "Tentacruel is a real sweetie, once you get to know him. Now, Acid!"

Gina had one second to react. "In the water!" she called, before she darted sideways and almost slipped on the slick Gym floor. Nidoran leapt forward and dove into the water just as a sludgey smattering of oil hit the edge of the Gym. Nidoran's head emerged from the water, and her Pokemon paddled for the edge of the pool where there was no acid. Gina watched nervously while Nidoran climbed out, shook off, and waited.

"Up, left!" Gina called, and Nidoran jumped up onto a row of deserted benches on the side of the Gym. Tentacruel was very slow, and turned to watch Nidoran as it ran alongside the pool. "Up, Double-Kick!" Gina shouted. Nidoran flew through the air, leaping as far as it could on its short legs. It managed to land five rapid Double Kicks to Tentacruel's rubbery side as it tumbled away and dove back into the water.

When Gina had realized what a penchant Nidoran had for swimming, she had been enormously impressed. Because Nidoqueens were Ground-type, and therefore rather against water, Gina kept forgetting that her unevolved Nidoran was only a Poison-type for now. Nidoran had swam circles around her at one of Cerulean's pools, proving to Gina that it loved the water immensely. Ever since then, Gina had known her strategy for beating Lily.

"Tentacruel, find it and Constrict it," Lily said, and Tentacruel's large tentacles slid through the water, searching. Gina kept her eyes trained on the water and saw Nidoran's small periwinkle body flitting through the water, avoiding the tentacles. Nidoran surfaced in the pool behind to Tentacruel's side, and Gina shouted, "Poison Sting!"

There was no way she would succeed in poisoning Tentacruel, who was a Poison-type itself, but she knew from experience that rubbing Nidoran the wrong way was painful. Tentacruel made a large, window-shaking groan of anger as Nidoran shot it full of barbs and jumped out again, onto the ledge.

"Grab it now!" Lily said, and this time Tentacruel did a massive side-swipe and scooped up Nidoran. Nidoran yelped and struggled, but Gina didn't even have to worry about her next battle move. Nidoran's back barbs bit painfully into Tentacruel's long black appendage, and Tentacruel growled angrily and dropped it.

Gina stared at her Pokemon as it swam away, looking for signs of fatigue. Nidoran still seemed alert, so she didn't stop for a Potion just yet. "Another Double Kick!" she shouted, and Nidoran dove down under the water just as Tentacruel went to grab it again. Gina decided this jellyfish wasn't too bright. From under the water, she could see Nidoran's blurry form drawing close to Tentacruel. A moment later Tentacruel twitched and writhed, splashing up enormous waves of water. One half of the bleachers got soaked and choruses of "hey!" and "no!" echoed through the Gym as Lily laughed.

"What a strange Nidoran you have there!" Lily remarked. "I should recruit it to my Gym as an honorary Water-type! Tentacruel, come here."

Gina groaned inwardly, thinking Lily was going to heal it. Instead, Tentacruel turned back around to face her with a renewed sense of alertness about it. It still had its scratches from Nidoran's barbs and kicks, so it couldn't have been an outright heal. Gina frowned.

"Nidoran—" Gina began, but Tentacruel was already jetting forward. Gina gaped at the sight, momentarily stunned that this battle was going out of order. "What the—!"

Tentacruel grabbed hold of Nidoran and managed to hit it with Supersonic. Gina covered her ears as that familiar brain-bleeding sound emitted through the Gym, and Nidoran squeaked in pain. When Tentacruel dropped it, Nidoran splashed around in confusion, swimming in weird, jerky circles as it struggled to figure out where it was. Gina ran over to the edge of the pool and slapped the water close to her.

"Nidoran! Over here, come on!" It took a while, but her Pokemon made its way over to her, dazed and confused. It pulled out of the water and swayed on the spot as Gina rummaged in her bag and pulled out a Potion, spraying at its flank. "How you holding up?"

Nidoran shook its head, not in response, but in an attempt to get itself right in the head. Gina rubbed its head, careful to avoid the horn. "You feeling okay?"

Nidoran stumbled a little executing Gina's next order of Poison Sting, but it still managed to hit target on the side of the pool, reverting to its past strategy. Gina didn't quite trust to send it up into the air for a Double Kick again so soon.

She figured out what must have happened when Tentacruel quickly dove under water, displacing more of it up over the edge. Lily had to have used some sort of speed-enhancing formula on her Pokemon just now; it was behaving completely differently from the slow, ungainly jellyfish she had been fighting earlier.

It erupted up from beneath the waves and succeeded in hitting Nidoran with Acid this time. Nidoran squirmed in the heavy gunk, not really affected by the poison but uncomfortable and slowed down considerably. Gina groaned and fumed in her head. All of Nidoran's attacks required speed of some sort. The only thing she could think of was Poison Sting from farther away; she had no clue how much more health Tentacruel had, and it was her best shot.

"Shoot at it!" Gina coached, and Nidoran managed to point its back at Tentacruel and fire off a few rounds of sharp little barbs.

Tentacruel bellowed and thrashed about, reaching up with its tentacles to rub at its "face" area. The other side of the Gym got soaked now. Lily finally emerged from behind Tentacruel, walking on the side ledge to observe her Pokemon. Tentacruel let out an angry, pained cry and sank low in the water until only the top of its head was visible. Lily dipped into the pool and swam over to it, putting her hand against its dark skin. After a moment, she smiled at Gina. "I don't think he's up for more. You win this match."

Gina had been over by Nidoran, splashing pool water on her to help her wiggle free of the sticky gunk. She did a double-take when Lily said this.

"I… I did?" she asked, not her most intelligent phrase. She could already hear Jason whooping and hollering up on the stands, and his footsteps pounding over the stairs.

"Yes, you did!" Lily said, smiling. "Send Nidoran over!"

Gina obeyed, and Nidoran swam through the water, past the sulking Tentacruel. The remaining Acid melted away in the pool water, and Lily rubbed Nidoran behind her ears. Nidoran came swimming back a moment later and jumped out of the pool, shaking off like a wet dog just as Jason tackled her from behind.

"Woo hoooo!" he shouted, and Nidoran opened her mouth and deposited a small Cascade Badge in Gina's open hand.

Gina, soaking wet, dirty, and getting very cold, beamed like a maniac at everyone around her. "Thank you, Lily!" she called, putting an arm around Jason's damp shoulders and patting Nidoran excessively for her job well done. Lily smiled at them, clapping her hands together like she found the entire display very touching. Then she recalled Tentacruel and the water in the pool splashed back down in its absence, less than half full now.

"Oh dear, that won't do! Clean up time! Fifteen minute break. Now, where are my assistants…?"

Orion joined them at the poolside, his hair doing something truly ridiculous due to the soaking he'd gotten from the battle. Jason burst out laughing and played with it, giving Orion a mohawk before his older brother could do more than protest vainly. Gina laughed until her sides hurt, and Nidoran barked at Jason and Orion in disapproval as they roughhoused dangerously close to she and Gina.

Gina knew she would remember this moment forever, in a strange sudden rush. It was something like melancholy, and she had no idea where the feeling had come from. Suddenly she felt as if she was watching from afar, looking down at the three trainers and Pokemon as they played around by the water's edge. Lily's harassed, overworked assistants piled in, running large push-brooms across the Gym floor to send the excess water down the drains. Jason tried to make a swipe for Gina's hair, and she pinched him on the leg to get him to stop. Her smile was enormous, as was his, and Orion was turning vaguely red at how much he was laughing.

She wished then, fervently, that they could always be that way. Somewhere deep inside she could imagine herself, so clearly, looking back on this moment years in the future, sadness in her eyes.

* * *

"Well," Jason said the next day, stretching out in the sun on Route 24, "No reason for us to hang around Cerulean anymore."

Gina glanced over at him, barely able to see him through her sun-drenched eyes. "Mmm," she said, reaching out with one hand and petting Charmander's head. Charmander grunted and moved away from her hand at first, but she just kept it there. Sure enough, Charmander reluctantly moved back in order to get more attention. Gina smiled and rubbed at his smooth, scaly skin as his grumbles turned into odd lizard-purring.

"I'm sorry we can't go straight on to Vermillion," Jason said out of nowhere. Gina glanced over at him again, though she didn't know why she bothered. She still couldn't see much of anything.

"I don't care," she assured him. "I'm not a total stickler for The Order, honestly. It's, just…" she turned to face him better, and Charmander grumbled at the loss of the pettings. "You'll have to face that Gym eventually, if you want to go to Indigo Plateau."

"I know," Jason said, with a sigh. "Just, not now."

"Understood," Gina said. "Like I said, I don't care where we go next. I just like traveling with you and Orion, is all."

There was a short little pause after what she had said. She thought maybe it was the sound of a situation growing a little awkward, but she wasn't sure. Jason treated her so much like one of the guys sometimes, that Gina forgot that she was outnumbered in the gender sense. She didn't mind at all; on the contrary, she loved being able to roughhouse, tease, and talk smack with the guys like an equal. She'd have been sad if they treated her too delicately.

However, there were times when she wanted to say things, like, "_you're a great friend,_" or "_everything's gonna be okay,_" and felt that she wasn't allowed to, or something. It was straying into the "mushy-gushy" territory, as Jason put it, and neither of them was very good at that. For the most part they just took it as an unspoken truth: Orion, Jason and Gina all really liked one another, and could depend on each other in tough times.

Jason's Dex rang in his Pocket, a hyper little tune. He fished it out and hit a button before putting it to his ear.

"Hello?"

Gina was ignoring the call, but when Jason suddenly jumped to his feet she quickly turned to look at him again. "Route 25," Jason said to whoever he was talking to. Of course, it had to be Orion. "Are you—"

Gina moved a little closer as Jason's expression turned into one of intense worry.

"But—" Jason quickly took the Dex away from his face and looked at it, then put it back. "Hello? He hung up." Gina's eyes were fixed on his face, her mouth set in a straight line.

"Something's wrong?"

"We have to head to the bridge," Jason said. "Orion will meet us there." At Gina's expression, he shrugged. "I don't know, he didn't say."

Mere minutes later they were rounding the corner of the massive walking bridge that separated Cerulean City from Routes 24 and 25. Jason had told Gina they'd probably have to wait a while for Orion, since he he had called them from the Center which was closer to the heart of town. When she saw that Orion was waiting there with all of their things, Gina's stomach flip-flopped. Jason and she dashed to meet him the rest of the way.

"Dad's here, and he's looking for us both," Orion said, dropping the bomb very eloquently.

"You saw him?" Jason asked, his eyes growing wide. Gina accepted her bag from Orion and slung it on her back, but Jason appeared to be having a sort of mental lock-down.

"I thought I was imagining it at first, just out of the corner of my eye. Turned around and he was gone, so, you know. But when I walked into the Center, the receptionist looked right at me and got on the phone right away. I was curious so I got a little closer to eavesdrop and she told someone, 'one of them just walked in.' I tried to leave but she called me over and told me I should wait. Supposed to be a surprise or something, but my dad was looking for me. I tried to be noncommittal, said I'd go find you and come back. I had to sneak out the back entrance with our things."

"But, Jason and I still have our keys," Gina said, having a hard time comprehending that this was all really happening. "I mean, I could be the one to go and give them back, but, I think everyone has to check out in person." She glanced at Jason nervously.

"Crap," Orion said with feeling. "You're right. God, I wasn't thinking." He sat down on the bridge and Jason finally got his brain to work.

"Let's, uh, go somewhere secluded. We can try to figure out what to do. Dad'll be at the Center, so, he won't be… outside."

Not his most brilliant sentence, perhaps, but it was a good enough plan. The three of them got moving, and even though they told themselves Nathan Fremont was in the Center, lying in wait there, they kept looking over their shoulders.

* * *

Apparently the world's worst sushi place was free of customers even by the light of day. Gina had to wonder how they were still in business.

They grabbed a table, ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, and waited in tense silence as their food was made. They thanked the man who brought the food out (the same man who had been there before) and watched his back as it retreated into the back room. Once he was gone everyone tried to say something at once.

"How bad is it if we just—"

"Gina, you know you don't need to—"

"I could call Mom, and she—"

Everyone stopped, and looked at each other. Orion spoke first.

"Gina, you really don't have to be a part of this."

"Vetoed," Gina said. She turned to Jason. "Next?"

"I was saying I could call Mom, and you know she'd be here in a second to get us."

Orion put his face into his hands and sighed. "As much as I would love to see Mom again, I really don't know if it's wise to get her involved right now. We don't know anything about what Dad's doing other than what I told you about. I don't want her to get caught up in this."

"You know she'd want to know if you guys felt there was danger involved," Gina reasoned. "Parent, and all."

"I know she'd _want_ to know," Orion said. "I just don't want her to."

"Well, then what?" Jason asked, drumming his knuckles on the table.

"What I was saying," Gina said, "Is, how bad would it be if we just return the keys and leave? I mean, will they hunt us down and force us to sign out? There have to have been people who were in a rush, couldn't find the front desk person and just bolted."

"I don't know how it works," Orion admitted.

The trio was silent for a moment. All that could be heard were the vague sounds of a soap opera through the thin double doors into the back of the restaurant.

Finally Gina spoke up. "We're gonna have to go back to the Center, eventually. I really don't like the idea of running off with their keys."

"I know," Orion said, dully. Jason fidgeted.

"Orion," he finally ventured, "do you really think it's gonna be that bad? With dad, I mean? I mean, do you really think he'd, you know, do anything bad to us when we're right out in public?"

"He'd be pretty stupid to try something like that," Orion said. "But, I don't trust him. I don't know what else to say."

"Heck, I don't even know him and I don't trust him either," Gina agreed. "I just, I don't know if running away will really solve anything for anyone. In the long run, I think you guys are going to have to talk to him eventually."

Jason and Orion both didn't seem to like the prospect of this, but Gina thought she saw a small glimmer of curiosity on Jason's face. She kept forgetting that Jason had really not gotten to know his father at all. He spoke like he knew him, but she suspected that he was just parroting what his mother had told him growing up. Gina took that moment of silence to wonder if Jason maybe _did _want to meet Nathan Fremont; even just a little.

"I really don't want to go back to Vermillion," Orion said quietly.

"Who says you have to?" Jason asked, stunned. "You're legal, you can do what you like!"

"Try telling that to dad," Orion said glumly. When Jason stood up, a determined look on his face, Orion said instantly, "I'm being sarcastic! Do _not _try telling that to dad."

Gina couldn't help a small smile at that. Jason would take on a stampeding herd of Rhyhorn if Orion wasn't around to talk him down. "We won't let you get scooped up that easy," Gina assured him. "Or you," she said to Jason. "We stick together, and too bad for your dad if he wants to change your plans."

"Remember," Orion said, unnecessarily. "I didn't tell either of you anything about the—about the weird stuff."

"What d'ya think we are, dumb?" Jason asked, feigning mortal offense. He put on a Southern bell accent. "Well, I never!"

Orion could not help but laugh at that, especially since Gina had been mid-sip and had just about choked on her water yet again. It lightened the mood considerably, and for a few moments they could almost pretend that no problems were waiting for them down the line.

Eventually though, the world-weary look came back to Orion's face. "Thanks, you guys. I really don't know what I'd do without you."

"Oh! Oh no you don't! Not that!" Jason exclaimed, looking to where Gina was sitting, blocking him in. Gina turned to face him, spreading out her arms so he couldn't leap over her and escape.

"And," Orion said, a little louder to be heard over Jason's struggles, "the last few months have been the best I've had since Saffron City when I was seven."

"Gyaaah!" Jason protested, turning away from Gina now and slinking into the corner of the booth. "Why are you getting all emotional? There is no need!"

"It's like his Kryptonite," Gina marveled. "Well, now I know. If I need to defeat an immature boy, all I have to do is…" Gina reached out and pulled Jason into a big hug, a wicked grin on her face. "You're the best, maaan!"

Jason's shouts and protests actually convinced the single sushi worker to emerge from the back room, confused. Orion tipped him generously, and Jason was still sulking when they exited the place.

"Here goes nothing, I guess," Orion said to himself. He seemed to be trying to talk himself down from panic. "All I did was go off on my own, like I told him I wanted to. He has no reason to believe I know anything else. It's gonna be okay."

"Sure is," Gina said, patting Orion on the back. "Jason and I've got your back."

Jason grumbled something indistinct, and Gina smiled a very fond smile at both of them as they started the long, lonely walk back to the heart of Cerulean. The Pokemon Center, a very scary father figure, and a whole bunch of unknown variables awaited them.


	25. Chapter 25 Orion

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 25

Orion Fremont

The Pokemon Center's fluorescent lights seemed too bright to Orion when he pushed his way in. It hurt his eyes and made him feel exposed, and a crawling feeling spread over his skin.

Gina and Jason seemed to notice how uncomfortable he felt. They both gave him matching worried looks, and Orion managed to smile at them. "Just tired," he explained. "We'll deal with this stuff in the morning."

"Yeah," Gina said, a jaw-cracking yawn suddenly interrupting her would-be sentence. "I'm gonna hit the hay too." She headed off down the hall to her room, but Jason stayed back. He glanced up at his brother, regarding him silently for a moment. Orion wasn't sure what he was thinking, which was strange for him. Jason was normally an open book.

"You aren't going to run off in the middle of the night, right?" Jason finally asked. Orion's expression of surprise must have been a good enough answer. Jason smiled and nodded. "Good," he said, his seriousness dissolving as he stretched and rubbed the back of his neck. "See ya in the morning."

"Right," Orion said, heading to the hall with him. Gina's room was already dark, and Orion suspected she had collapsed on her bed fully dressed without bothering with anything else.

Jason paused by his door, since Orion wasn't making a move to enter his own room. Orion smiled, unstuck his feet from the floor, and opened his door. "Night, Jay," he said.

"Night." Jason disappeared into his room. Orion waited a few moments for the light to go off, and a few more seconds to make sure neither Gina nor Jason would be coming out.

Then Orion headed back out into the lobby, picked a seat by a window, and waited.

* * *

_Orion had known he was going to take the rap for Jason the instant his little brother, in all his Kindergarten glory, had spilled the ink. It had been completely Jason's fault, and they both knew it. Orion had to admit, he was never a good baby-sitter. He let his little brother, so precocious and sassy for a five year old, get away with everything. _

_They didn't have a lot of time to devise a plan. Jason just looked up at his brother, his blue eyes wide with shock. His "sword," aka an old broom handle, fell to the carpet beside the ever-growing dark blue stain. Orion looked down at it, wondering for a moment if their Comet soap under the sink would get the stain out in the next five minutes. He vetoed that idea pretty fast. He might only be seven, but he'd had enough schooling to know that the stain might as well be chemically bonded with their carpet now._

_Orion crossed the room to Jason, who cringed, expecting a verbal lashing. Orion took the broom-sword, stuffed it in their closet, and dragged Jason over to one of their big orange arm chairs. He helped Jason get up on the chair, then handed him a juice box. Jason still looked shell-shocked, but that was okay. Orion then walked over to the kitchen, grabbed a big wad of paper towels, and started vainly soaking up the excess ink._

_A moment later, their mother walked in. She was in a gray business suit and was carrying an iced coffee. Orion always remembered her this way, for some reason. Though he had seen her in pajamas, a bathrobe, sweats and a t-shirt, his mind always conjured her up in a business suit when he thought of her._

_Orion looked up at her, guilt written clearly over his earnest face. It wasn't a hard emotion to fake; he felt guilty for the lie he was about to tell, at least._

"_Rye!" his mother exclaimed, almost dropping her drink. That wouldn't have really helped the carpet situation, Orion thought bleakly. "Oh my God, what happened?"_

"_Sorry!" Orion said at once, picking up the soggy dark blue towels and tossing them away, then getting new ones. "I didn't see it, I knocked it over… sorry."_

"_Wait till your father sees this," she said, the words "your father" coming out in a tense sigh, the way they had been for years. "He's not going to like this."_

_That was sure an understatement. Orion cast a quick look to Jason, who was now looking down at his lap, his hair in his face._

_Their mother noticed it too. "Don't worry Jason," she said. "Daddy will be mad at Orion, but I'm going to deal with him. It'll be okay." To Orion, she whispered, "You really have to be more careful! Do you _want_ him to be in a bad mood?"_

"_No," Orion said simply. "I'm sorry."_

"_It's alright," she said, sighing tersely. "Oh Orion, you're all blue." It was true; the dark ink was stained all over his hands, under his nails… _

"_Guess you could say I've been caught blue-handed," he joked. _

_It was a little too early for it to be funny. His mom just raised an eyebrow at him disapprovingly and said, "Go wash up. Jason, go with your brother."_

_Orion was soon standing on the step-stool in their bathroom, scrubbing his hands and watching as light blue water swirled away into the drain. He was able to get the darker color to fade, but his hands were still a rather pleasant shade of lapis lazuli and the water would just not run clear. Orion stared down at them, a little disheartened. He wondered how long they would be blue. Becky and Dianne at school would sure get a kick out of that._

_Jason was extremely quiet, which finally struck Orion as odd. He turned to face his brother, a questioning frown on his face, and Jason took one look up at him before bursting into tears._

_Orion, shocked, jumped down from the step-stool. "What's wrong?" he asked, flabbergasted. He'd taken the blame for the ink precisely so Jason would not be sad. He hadn't expected his plan to backfire so incredibly._

"_I'm sorry!" Jason howled, and Orion put his blue hands up to shush him. "It's my fault, and you're gonna be in trouble, and it's _my_ fault!"_

"_Shhh!" Orion insisted. "It's not a big deal, really! It's fine, like Mom said, she's gonna talk to Dad. Okay?"_

_Jason managed to stop wailing outright and downgraded to heavy sniffles. Orion walked over and pulled him into an awkward hug, since he had to keep his hands away from Jason's white shirt. Jason hugged him back ferociously, and Orion felt his brother's various kinds of facial-moisture soaking into the front of his shirt slightly. It was a mark of how close they were that this didn't gross him out._

"_Why'd you do it?" Jason asked, hiccuping slightly now and looking up at Orion with miserable eyes._

_Orion laughed and ruffled his hair up. "You're my brother! I've always got your back, Jason." _

_He realized his mistake a second later; his brother now had a slight tint of sky blue in his blond hair. "Oh no," he said, dropping his face into his hands. Of course, this only succeeded in giving Orion two pale blue hand-prints._

_At least it had made Jason laugh._

Orion, 16 years old and sitting near the window of the Cerulean City Pokemon Center, blinked once, slowly. The memory before him dissolved and the real world came back all around him. Instead of his brother's childish laughter, a newer memory filled his ears. It was Gina, saying in her completely confident tone, "We've got your back, Orion."

She couldn't have possibly known how much those words meant to him. He was sure not even Jason remembered the details of the ink incident. He'd been so young, and even though he was always a sharp, smart kid, Orion knew that the best of their shared memories were blurry and indistinct to his younger brother.

A bitterness Orion tried never to feel rose in him like a hot column of steam. Orion was a calm person, careful and organized, patient and mellow. Whenever he got this way, though, it felt like he was not Orion anymore. Everything about him changed.

He hated that he had not been able to share more experiences with Jason up until now. He hated that their mother had not been able to take him to Saffron, too. He hated his father, even though he told himself he was lucky, that other kids had it so much worse. Orion was not hit, starved or abandoned. He got sworn at a lot, sure, but over the years he had learned to tune that in one ear and out the other. He hated his father for the fact that he _didn't _do anything really terrible outright, something that would allow Orion to go to the police with a big ol' shiner. If only Nathan Fremont _had _kicked him once, or knocked him into some furniture. Orion would be on his way to Saffron so fast his father's head would spin.

He hated the fact that, even after all these years of neglect, bottled up anger, and fierce arguments, he still felt subordinate to his dad. Nathan Fremont had power over him, and Orion had no idea how to tell that to Jason and Gina. To them, it was simple, a mere matter of law. Orion was 16. He could do what he wanted. They had no idea how hard it had been for him to pack his things, climb out his window, and run into the night. His eyes had darted around like a prey animal under the wings of some fierce night predator. He was so certain his father would emerge from some shadow, grab him in one swift motion, and drag him back home though some magical tunnel through space and time. Nathan Fremont was not a mere mortal in Orion's eyes. It made him feel like a mad man, but he could never shake the feeling that his father had a secret power over him Orion had never been able to understand.

The full memory of his dream in Mt. Moon came to him all at once: _Use Psybeam, what the hell is wrong with you?_

"Well, you decided to show up."

Orion didn't have to turn around. Of course he'd recognize his dad's voice anywhere. Instead he just sat still as Nathan Fremont walked around to the other chair, opposite Orion, and sat down in it. Orion looked up at his dad, observing the fading scar at his right temple, and another near his lip. His face looked a lot better than it had the last time Orion had seen him.

Orion thought he had experienced some pretty awkward silences in his life, but this one really took the cake. They must have sat there for a good ten minutes before his father finally spoke up.

"So, why'd you run off?"

"To be fair, I warned you," Orion said reasonably. "I wanted to go on a training journey."

"Yeah, you did, and I said no."

"I'm 16," Orion said, calling on Gina's logic to try to keep him afloat in this conversation. "I'm legally allowed to go where I want to."

"You are my son," Fremont said, and Orion could feel his dad's pale blue eyes boring holes into his forehead even though he couldn't make himself maintain eye contact. He found it funny that his father only used the words "my son" when he was trying to control him. "You do what I think is best until you move out on your own and get your own house and family."

"I don't need your money, if that's what you're talking about," Orion said dully. "I'm doing fine on my own."

Orion waited for the explosion. When it didn't happen, he figured his dad didn't want to start shouting and cursing in the middle of the Center at 2 a.m.

He could hear him grinding his teeth, though. "Orion, you might think you're smart. But I know why you left."

"Uh, yeah, I just _told _you why I—"

"Don't patronize me, boy." Fremont said it in a calm, even tone, which took Orion off guard completely. The words were aggressive, but the way his father was behaving was so completely out of character. Orion actually did look up at him this time, just to make sure he was speaking to a human and not a robotic look alike.

"I don't know what you mean," Orion finally said.

Fremont sighed. "We're really going to play this game? You're really going to sit there across from me and waste my time? Fine. You left because you think I'm up to something illegal, and you freaked out."

Orion's blood turned to ice in his veins. He was a terribly liar, but he called upon the Orion who had once been able to tell a bold-faced lie about an ink stain to his mother. "Is this about the break-in?"

"Okay, still playing dumb. Fine. Yes, son, it's about the break-in." The sarcasm dripping from that last sentence was more like his dad now, and strangely, that relaxed Orion a little. "I know you're entertaining some pretty weird ideas in your head right now, but hey. You're a kid, it happens."

Orion's face twisted into something like disbelieving confusion. He felt like reminding his father that he was a legal adult and insisting that his dad was just spouting nonsense at the same time. He decided on saying nothing for now.

"You're coming back to Vermillion with me, you know. It's going to happen eventually, so you can drag this out, or you can make life easier for both of us."

Orion actually snorted at this, and he did not miss the widening of his father's eyes. Orion had never behaved this way to him before, and it gave him an exhilarating and terrifying rush. "Sure, Dad. Whatever you say," he said, each word dripping with sarcasm.

Fremont clenched his fist on the table. "You can't do this forever. Just remember that." He made a move to stand up and walk away, and Orion felt a surge of relief. It was cut short though, as his father instead stuck around and asked, "Where's Jason? I know he's here with you."

Orion shrugged, his expression and voice cool and remote. "Oh, I'm sure he's around somewhere," he said.

Fremont appeared to be counting in his head. He was struggling so obviously to reign in his temper and be calm that Orion knew he was playing with fire here. He just didn't understand why his dad was trying so hard not to be his normal brutish self. "Fine. I'll talk to him later. You'll be ready to come back to Vermillion with me soon."

He said it like it was a command and a prediction at the same time, and Orion wasn't sure which one it was. As his dad stood up, he glanced over at a table across the Center. Orion followed his gaze and saw four yawning teens against the other window, looking at a map and sticking it full of little post-it notes. They had four mugs of something with them.

"So, did you pay those guys?"

Orion looked up at his father, his brow furrowing. "What?"

"At the table there. You have to hire body guards against your own dad?" Fremont scoffed and shook his head before heading away from the table and out into the night. Orion had somehow thought his father was staying at the Pokemon Center, but he supposed he was mistaken. He shot a glance over at the table of four, and caught one of the girls looking his way. She looked back down at the map, and, on impulse, Orion got up and crossed the Center to their table.

The boy looked up at Orion as he approached. He had dark skin and eyes, and hair the color of an oil slick pulled back in a ponytail. Across from him was the girl who had caught his eye, and she looked sort of like she was related to the boy. The other two were definitely not relations, probably friends.

Orion cleared his throat. "So, you know my dad?"

They exchanged a look and smiled sheepishly. "We're sort of fans. Sorry if it's weird."

Orion had no clue how he knew they were lying. It was not a hunch, or a gut feeling. It was just a simple, clear-cut fact that leapt into his mind. They were lying, even though they were doing a really good job of it. He glanced at their map. "Planning a training route?"

"Mmhmm," the redhead girl said. "You're welcome to sit with us if you like. There's a chair over there."

Orion hesitated for a moment. All he really wanted to do in the world right now was go pass out. Something told him not to just yet, however, and he pulled up a chair on the end of their table. He caught an expression of bewildered shock on the brunette girl's face.

They made small talk about his dad's Gym. Orion wasn't able to pretend that he was proud of his parentage, but was polite and answered their questions. After a while though, it just became tiring. Orion rubbed his temples and sighed.

"So, who are you guys, exactly? Dad asked me if I'd hired you to protect me from him, or something. That leads me to believe something weird is going on here."

There was silence at the table, and finally the boy spoke up. "… No, we're just traveling together. Like we said before, we're fans of his Gym leading… one night he caught us trying to get an autograph from him—"

The redhead girl groaned and laughed. "So embarrassing. We did get our autograph though."

Orion just stared at them blankly. "Ah-huh," he said in a flat tone. Peripherally he was amazed that he was behaving this way. This was not normal Orion behavior. It seemed today he was just a big ball of sarcasm and suspicion. "Look," he said earnestly. "I've just had the most freakin' bizarre talk in the world with my dad. He wants me to go back to Vermillion with him, but you know what? I really don't like my dad. He's a jerk. I don't want to go back, and I've got good reason not to. So, that's a bit of truth from my side. Can I maybe get a bit of truth from yours? You have some other reason for tailing my dad."

The girl who looked like the sister spoke up, a slight challenging look on her face. "You seem like a cool guy and all, but seriously, what's your problem? If we've been making you uncomfortable, sorry. It wasn't intentional."

Orion suddenly got brief insight to how his dad must have felt, talking to him and knowing he was lying, but unable to pry the truth from him. It was pretty frustrating, he had to admit. Orion heaved a sigh and decided to parrot his dad's words for the first time in his life. "So, we're going to play this game? Alright then, fine."

The redhead girl was not behaving like her friends. The brunette girl seemed shy and awkward, and was looking away from him. The two siblings were still set with confused frowns on their faces, looking more and more like this talk was an unwelcome one. The redhead, however, just stared at Orion, a strange and shrewd expression on her face. The boy looked down at a phone, reading something on it.

Orion got up from the table suddenly. He moved his chair back to where he had found it and shook his head. "Well, goodnight, then."

He was halfway across the Center when the guy caught up to him.

"I've been going out on a limb a lot the past few weeks," the guy said. "I really don't know what your deal is, or if I can trust you."

Orion laughed. "Well, if it's a comfort, that is precisely how I feel."

The guy and Orion stared each other down for a moment. The guy finally spoke what seemed like a very long time later.

"Let's talk about this stuff tomorrow. Somewhere secluded would be good."

* * *

That night, Orion did not sleep. He left the door to his room wide open and sat down on the ground, leaning up against the side of his bed. He could face the door this way, and hear if anyone came down the hall. He counted the breaths he took, unable to think of anything else. Next door, he was sure Jason was sleeping soundly, perhaps tossing and turning in his sleep, completely unaware of these new developments. Orion's eyes adapted to the darkness, staring unblinkingly out in the hall. A few times something moved in the dark, and Orion stood, ready to go out and stop his father from getting to Jason's room. It never was his father, though, and most of the time it wasn't a person at all—just a shadow, moving through Orion's imagination.

When the sun came up and dyed his room a soft pink, Orion thought only one thing as he got up to stretch out his sore, stiff back. _I've always got your back._

_

* * *

Author's Note: To my few readers: my computer power chord died, and I'm back online now, finally. Updates will resume in a much, much more timely fashion. I took some advice and will put flashbacks (like the one above) in italics.  
_


	26. Chapter 26 Gav

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 23

Gav Harrison

Gav felt like his brain was going to explode. It had been an incredibly action-packed past 24 hours.

Victoria, Kaylee, Beth and he were piled up in his room again, behind a locked door and with the window blinds drawn shut. Kaylee was pacing, Beth was nodding off against his pillow, and Victoria was sitting on his desk, a remote and calculating look on her face.

Gav was the first to break the silence. "Strange as it sounds, I trust them."

"So do I," Beth added sleepily from the pillow. "They seem like good people."

Kaylee hopped up and sat on the nightstand, apparently tired of wearing down the floor. "It's a lot to take in, what they told us," she said. "All I know is I want to follow up on some of these leads, now."

Gav put his hand up. "In good time. For now we need to figure out what we think about this information."

Orion, Jason, Gav, Victoria, Kaylee and Beth had been talking for the better part of an hour in the little sushi bar on the outskirts of town. Jason and Victoria had been pretty quiet and standoffish at first, but Jason had warmed up to the four trainers eventually. He seemed to think it was completely cool that they made a habit of investigating strange circumstances across Kanto. Of course he'd had a bunch of questions, but Gav had censored their answers severely.

Orion on the other hand, had been hesitant right up until the very end. Even as the six parted ways, Gav got the feeling he did not completely trust them. He couldn't blame him.

Victoria sighed from her place on the table. "I don't know what to think yet. There's still a slim chance they're dirty, but it would make no sense for them to tell us about the break-in and the weird papers under the bed. What would they have to gain from this?"

Gav nodded. "I don't know. That's why I'm inclined to believe they're genuine."

Beth sat up, a little more alert. "I feel sort of bad that we didn't tell them everything."

Victoria pointed out very shrewdly, "We have no reason to believe that _they _told _us _everything either, though."

Orion had, essentially, explained his reason for leaving home, his worry that his dad was getting himself into something bad, and the fact that he and Jason had indeed reported in the weird activity on Mt. Moon. When Gav asked about the third trainer who had been with him, Orion had shrugged. "Just some girl," he explained. "She was around at the time and was quick with her Dex. She went off on her own when we got to Cerulean."

Gav had caught it, though; Jason had looked up at Orion briefly, a wide-eyed look on his face for just one split second. Then Jason had gone back to eating, pulling a face at the disgusting salmon roll on his plate. Orion had been lying; they knew more about the girl with the Dex than they let on.

"They are hiding something," Gav explained to Victoria and the room at large as he yanked his PDA out of his pocket and called up the internet. "For one thing, they have a friend we haven't met, yet."

"I wonder why they didn't bring her," Kaylee said, frowning and returning to pacing.

"Could be any number of reasons," Victoria said. "But I'd feel better if we knew all of their players. They know all of ours."

"Yeah, but, they have no clue who we really are. I think," Gav added. He had left out the whole we're-Ando-Harrison's-kids bit. He wasn't even sure if he would tell the Fremont brothers in the future. There were too many loose ends for now.

"So, what are we going to tell them tomorrow?" Kaylee asked. "I think we've covered all of the who-are-you stuff today. We need a plan for how we can help each other out."

"Well, we got a lot of information from them," Gav pointed out. "I don't know if they've got much else to tell us."

"They trusted us enough to tell us that much, at least," Beth said. It had not been easy for the six trainers to come to their shaky, fragile truce earlier in the day. It had been a whole lot of back-and-forth, questions and answers, suspicious stares and long silences. Gav still felt mentally exhausted from all of it.

"Well," Gav said simply, "We'll probably just need to ask them what we can do for them. I also don't feel good about taking valuable information from them and leaving."

"Let's determine what we're comfortable and not comfortable with offering," Victoria said. Not for the first time, Gav felt a surge of gratitude to her. He couldn't deny it; ever since she and Beth had joined them, everything seemed to be happening. They'd had one of the biggest leads imaginable present itself to them, and Victoria's quick-thinking and Beth's insight had gotten them so much farther than Gav and Kaylee would have alone.

"I'm comfortable with offering to figure out what the heck Fremont is up to," Kaylee said. "This is a huge lead. We need to follow up soon. Vermillion's right on the other side of Saffron, we can so make it there any time. Heck, we can even take the underground tunnel—"

"Alright, alright," Gav said, putting a halt to Kaylee's growing enthusiasm. "I personally think that might be a bad idea." Kaylee gave him a baffled, horrified look, and Gav put his hand up again. "For now."

"Why?" Victoria asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"We don't want to incriminate Orion and Jason. If we go to investigate those papers and leave any trace behind, Fremont will naturally assume his sons had something to do with it."

Kaylee slumped against the wall. "Aw, maaan… it's right _there_, though…"

"I know," Gav said. "In good time. For now, it seems to me that Orion and Jason will probably want to give their dad the slip."

"Is that such a good idea?" Victoria asked, frowning. "This seems like a family issue. Not sure if we should interfere."

"Fremont seems like he's putting a lot of pressure on them, though," Beth pointed out. "It would be good if we at least offer them an out. You know, a mark of good faith." She paused. "Assuming we can even offer one to begin with."

"I've got an idea or two," Gav said.

* * *

"It's sort of cramped in here," Orion commented from his place perched on the edge of the bed. Beth was behind him, leaning against the wall, and Kaylee was sitting cross-legged on the floor near his feet. Victoria was on the table, Gav was sitting backwards on the chair, and Jason was on the other corner of the bed, shifting uncomfortably and tugging at his shirt sleeves.

"I know," Gav said apologetically. "Sorry about this. We'll keep it brief."

"You said yesterday that you don't want to return to Vermillion with your dad," Victoria recapped. "That's still true, I take it."

Jason laughed. "Uh, yeah," he said. "We haven't received lobotomies in the past 24 hours, so, still true."

Kaylee laughed at that. Gav had to smile too. "We'd like to offer you a way to get out of here without having to check out of the Center in person," he said. "From what I understand the receptionist seems to be in touch with your father."

"Mmhmm," Orion said. "She called him on us once before, maybe more times that I'm not aware of." He frowned at Gav. "How exactly would you do this?"

"I'd log you out of the computer system remotely. We leave the keys at the desk when she's not around, and by the time she gets back she won't realize you've gone until you and Jason are on your way out of town."

Jason spoke up at once. "You can _do_ that?" Gav was amused that he had worded this question the exact same way Beth had before.

"Yes," Gav replied.

Jason seemed convinced, but Orion gave Gav an even, steady look. "Why are you helping us?"

"You gave us a lot of valuable information," Gav said. "We'd like to do what we can for you as well. It sounds like you're in a bad situation."

"That's putting it lightly," Jason said. "When can we leave?"

"Jason," Orion said, disapprovingly. "I don't know if we're taking them up on their offer yet."

"Why not?" Jason asked. "We're free to do whatever we want, and it's not like you're gonna go with dad anyway. This way we can just slip past him without any more drama."

Orion was quiet for a while, so Gav moved on to a different subject.

"Would you mind taking my phone number, at least?" he asked. "If your dad is involved in something strange, you know you could use backup."

It sounded a little melodramatic to Gav's ears, but Orion couldn't seem to think of a reason not to. "I'm not giving you my number in return," he warned Gav as he pulled out his phone.

"Rye," Jason grumbled. "You're being super rude to these guys who are, y'know, offering us a way to sneak away from dad."

"He's just being careful," Gav said, evenly. "I'd do the same thing in his position." Gav read the number aloud to Orion, who copied it into his phone and saved it.

"Thank you," he said to Gav, and it was clear that a small trace of guilt was starting to show through. "You know, I really don't think you're working for my dad. I appreciate that you know why I'm being careful, though. Dad honestly doesn't trust underlings of any kind, much less teens. He thinks we're not worth anything." Orion rolled his eyes, and Kaylee made an angry huffing sound. "And, Jason's right. It would be pretty convenient if we could get out of here without making waves."

"Will do," Gav said. "I'll knock on your door and let you know when you're set to leave."

Orion stood up, and Jason did too. Jason offered them a big grin. "Thanks," he said again. "You guys are pretty useful."

Kaylee laughed. "We try."

The brothers headed out, and Victoria let out a terse sigh. Gav had been expecting this.

"What is this? Give everyone everything they want day? We didn't get any contact info from them, they're headed off now god-knows-where. I fail to see how this is—"

"Don't worry about it too much," Gav said. "The brothers don't know anything about their dad's motives. It won't do us any harm if we do them this favor. And if he wants to, Orion can contact us."

"What if someone gets the number off of him?" Victoria countered.

"My phone is protected from tracing," Gav explained. "You'll notice I didn't give him any of your phone numbers."

Victoria mumbled something under her breath that sounded like, "with, not against."

"Pardon?" Gav asked.

"Nothing," she said.

* * *

_Author's Note: If this seems like too much of a jump, let me know, and I'll add in an actual scene where the groups are talking to one another in the sushi shop._


	27. Chapter 27 Gina

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 24

Gina Ikeda

Gina dipped her feet in the water, staring down at her reflection in the disturbed ripples. She looked tired and bored. A moment later a fishing bait fell into the water's surface right where her face's image had been, and she looked away, instead turning to her starter. Charmander looked bored as well, but his posture and expression was mixed with irritation, too.

"I need some Water-types," Gina said flatly. "It's nothing personal."

Charmander snorted steam, and Gina knew that wasn't the reason he was annoyed. There was nothing she could do about the real reason, though, so she decided not to worry about it too intensely right now.

Gina, and by association, her Pokemon, had not seen hide nor hair of Orion and Jason in many days. Orion had explained to her that she needed to pretend she didn't know them, just for a while. It was pretty hard not to react when they walked into the Center together, and Gina normally just pretended she was distracted with something else for the most part. She still got text messages from Jason, which kept her from being too agitated.

_theyre the ones w/ the map at the window_, Jason's text had read from this morning. _table with red hair girl_

In that way, Gina was kept up-to-date on the things that had been going on. Just last night Orion had spoken to Fremont, apparently. Jason had expressed his frustration in his message, unable to believe Orion had faked them out and pretended to sleep. All the while he had been meeting with their father completely unbeknownst to Jason. Today they were going to meet up and talk to the four other trainers again, and Gina had no idea how that would go. She suspected they were meeting up right now, in fact.

Something tugged at her line, and Gina pulled slightly and stared at the hooked Magikarp. It seemed sad to do damage to it, but she _had _come out here to capture a Water-type. She glanced at Charmander.

"Um… you mind?" she asked uncertainly. Charmander gave her an epic eye roll and walked over to the Magikarp. Gina stared at the thing, flailing and splashing around fruitlessly.

"Ah… Scratch, I guess," she said. Charmander sighed. One half-hearted Scratch and one Pokeball tap to the head later, the Magikarp was hers. It was, by far, her most lackluster catch.

She sighed and pulled the rod up out of the water, laying it down on the grass beside her and resting her head on her knees. "Well, that was fun."

Charmander snorted in agreement. Nothing seemed exciting without her friends around to share in it and joke with her, and Gina had to wonder when she'd grown so used to the company of others. It was an unpleasant thing to suddenly be deprived of companionship, and she really hoped that the hiatus would be done with soon.

"I'm starting to think this rod only hooks Magikarp," Gina said with a sigh, picking up the rental rod and her bag. "Let's just return this thing and head back." Charmander was already walking down the path without her, apparently more than done with this underwhelming training venture. Gina sighed. He wasn't the only one.

* * *

Gina tossed her bag down on the her bed in the Pokemon Center, flopped into her chair, and stared at Charmander. He had curled up on the ground and gone to sleep, his tail kept adrift near his nose and, thankfully, not near the wood floor. Gina made a mental note to keep an eye on it as she did absolutely nothing.

After fifteen minutes of this, Gina's antsyness reached its breaking point. She yanked out her Dex and dialed up her mom's home number, a second before she realized this would incur some long-distance roaming charges. She hung up at once and paused before leaning over to poke Charmander delicately in the side. He grumbled and opened one teal eye to her.

"I need to go make a call in the lobby," Gina said. "Can you come with me? I don't want you to burn down my room."

A few moments later Charmander was curled up on the floor by one of the lobby's camera-phone booths, snoozing away. Gina's Dex rang and she quickly answered as she was dishing out fifty cents from her pocket. "Mom, hi—lemme call you from the Center phone real quick okay? Sorry, bye."

A moment later her mother appeared on the screen, and Gina's face broke into a huge grin. Her mom looked like she had been in the middle of cleaning; her crazy, fly-away hair was tied up in her bandana and she had the slightly flustered look of someone who had been crawling around and dusting for the better part of the day.

"Honey!" she said, a huge smile growing to match Gina's. "Hi! I can see you. Can you see me? Is it working?"

Gina laughed. "Yes mom, the camera's all set up. It's working just fine." Her mom had recently used part of her savings to buy a camera-phone for their home so she could talk to Gina easier when she called.

"It's been like two weeks, how have you been?"

"Good, mom," Gina said, still unable to keep the grin off her face. "Sorry I haven't been in touch, last few weeks."

"How's Charmander?"

"He's right here," Gina said, taking the little camera and moving it down to show where Charmander was snoozing on the floor. Her mom went "ohhh!" at his admittedly cute sleeping face.

Gina fixed the camera again. "How's Pallet?" she asked, feeling a weird lurch in her middle. She was pretty sure she was feeling melancholy because she missed her mom, but it was a little more than that at the same time. Lately Gina had not been able to stop thinking about Pallet Town. As she listened to her mom talk about the people she had grown up with, it increased. She missed just about everything about her home; she missed her bed in her messy room, with the posters faded from the sun all over the walls. She missed the log wall surrounding her home town, missed walking around town with one hand trailing against the wood. She missed being able to walk down to Professor Drake's and ask him some random Pokemon question. He was never too busy to talk to her, and even though her Dex was just as knowledgable, she missed her conversations with him. She made a mental note to call him next.

Gina shook it off the best she could, feeling suddenly very blue. Her mom stopped talking about her coworker at Mulligan's who was pregnant. She must have been able to tell. "Gina, hun, what's wrong?"

Gina averted her eyes for a moment. "Just, want to visit sometime soon," she said.

"Well, you know you can come back here any time you want," her mother insisted. "We'd love to see you from time to time."

"We?" Gina asked.

"Professor Drake's been asking about you," her mom said. "You should call him after."

Her mom was nothing if not psychic. "I was actually gonna do that, believe it or not," she said, laughing. The two of them caught up for a few more minutes until a neighbor knocked on the door.

"Oh! Gina, that's Buck, he's helping me take that old broken hutch out of the living room. I better go. Call me tomorrow? Or whenever you can?"

"Tomorrow," Gina promised, grinning. "Bye, mom. Tell Buck I say hi."

Gina sat there for a while, staring at the blank screen. She had no idea why she was hit with such an intense wave of ennui today. Jason and Orion had helped to distract her, she supposed, from the discomfort she felt being away from home for the first time in her life. Now that they were trying to keep her safe by ignoring her except for the occasional text, Gina felt adrift and confused.

She dialed up Professor Drake next, and patiently navigated her way through the "Press 1" and "Press 7" verbal menu. Soon Alana's face came to view.

"Gina, hi! How have you been?" Gina smiled once more, happy to see the nicest of the research assistants.

"Great," she lied. To be fair, she had been doing great until the past few days. "Charmander's good too," she said, since everyone she spoke to from home always asked that question next.

"Oh, he was the one with the…" Alana paused, and mouthed "temper problem." Gina laughed and nodded. "How's he handling now?" Alana asked.

Gina looked down at Charmander, who had sighed and wiggled around a little in his sleep. "He and I are getting along pretty well," she said. "We're pretty good at compromising with each other, now."

Alana grinned at her. "I'll go find Professor Drake for you," she said. Gina thanked her and waited while she was put on hold. She wound up staring intently at the screen, since it went into screen saver mode and became a swirl of pretty blues and greens. She still had a sort of dazed look on her face when Professor Drake's tie came into view. Gina snapped out of it and tried to look more intelligent, but it didn't matter. Professor Drake's chest was her main view for many moments as he muttered and adjusted the camera settings, sometimes reducing the image to fuzzy static. "Sorry Gina!" he called, a few minutes into this. "Be right with you!"

"It's alright," Gina called, earning herself a few irritated stares from the other people making calls to her left and right. She lowered her voice and ducked closer to the booth.

Finally Professor Drake's disheveled head came into focus, and he beamed at her.

"Gina! How have you been?"

"Great," Gina said, nodding. "Charmander's with me. I'd let you talk to him, but he's asleep."

Gina and Professor Drake caught up on things for a while, and to his credit, he did not bring up Amaris once. Gina was very grateful for this.

Midway through a story about Alana's pun book manuscript, Professor Drake stopped. Gina wondered why, a second before she realized that her expression had shifted into a strange bittersweet smile sometime during the talk. She rearranged her facial muscles, but the damage had been done.

"Gina?" he asked, and she inwardly cursed these attentive adults. "What's the matter?"

Gina's first impulse was to say "nothing!" After a moment though, she sighed. Her mom, Professor Drake, and the other neighbors from around their area had been her friends growing up, and she figured she could at least tell the professor the censored version of her troubles.

"I met some great friends traveling," Gina said. "But they're going through stuff right now, and I don't know if I'll get to keep up with them." She shrugged. "Got used to them being around and I guess it's a little lonely." She felt herself flushing slightly at that admission, her pride wincing.

Professor Drake was quiet for a few moments. Finally he said, "enjoy these years as much as you can, Gina. I hope you and your friends can stick together, but if you can't, make sure you have as much fun and meet as many people as you can. You never know when the present will become just a fond memory."

It wasn't that cold in the Center. The AC was cutting in and out, something the staff had apologized to them for. Gina had even seen many trainers wiping their brows and stripping down to tank tops and shorts indoors. She felt a chill crawl down her spine and settle in her stomach; goosebumps popped up on her arms.

Professor Drake looked abashed. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to give you the old-fart speech. What are your friends going through?" Very astutely, he added, "is it something you can tell me about?"

"It's not really that big a deal, but, I'm not sure they'd want me spreading it," Gina half-lied. It was a pretty big deal, but she sure wasn't going to tell that to Professor Drake and have him start worrying. "I'm sure it'll be fine." Another lie, she was really on a roll today.

Professor Drake broke his streak of not mentioning his nephew. Gina let out a very, very tiny sigh, hopefully soft enough that the professor wouldn't notice. "Amaris is still flying solo, but he told me you and he have run into one another in Cerulean."

"Yup," Gina said simply. Then something occurred to her. "He's not still around, is he?" She'd meant to word it in a more delicate way, not to make it sound like she was waiting for him to clear out. Professor Drake didn't seem surprised though, and chuckled.

"Yes, he left about a week ago. Heading off to Vermillion, I suspect. Is that your next stop?"

Gina paused. She had no idea what her next stop was, and at that moment she realized that was part of her melancholy. She wasn't sure what was going on, or where she wanted to be. "Not really sure," she admitted. "I might break The Order, we'll see."

She could have sworn Professor Drake's expression became serious and solemn for one brief moment. Before she could analyze it though, it was gone.

"Alright Gina. I'd better be going, but thank you for dropping me a line. You're one of the only people who calls me for things other than tech support!"

Gina laughed at that, and bid Professor Drake goodbye. His kind smile remained in her field of vision for a while after she had hung up, and she once again wondered how Amaris could be so unbearable with such a cool guardian figure. There was a line for the phones though, and she got up and picked up Charmander to let someone else use the booth. Careful not to let his tail flame burn her, she made her way back to her room.

* * *

Jason's text arrived to her that evening, while she was eating take out in her room and fiddling with her Dex. It rang in her hands and she almost dropped it in her noodles out of shock. She mentally reminded herself to make a sign for it that read I AM ALSO A PHONE so she wouldn't be so constantly surprised when it did this on her.

His text was short and sweet: _we r leaving tonight. do u still want 2 come?_

Her reply was quick and sloppy: _of curse jus tell me when_

When Orion knocked softly on her door at 2 a.m., Gina was ready. Charmander, Nidoran and the others were safely in their Pokeballs at her belt, and her bag was packed. She'd left her key on her table as instructed, which she found terribly odd. The brothers had promised they'd tell her more when they were out of the city limits.

Gina rushed to the door and opened it quietly, and her face broke into a huge grin at the sight of the two blond brothers, both looking very alert in spite of the late hour. Jason's face split into a broad smile as well, and he actually was the first to give Gina a hug.

"Let's go," Orion mouthed, and the three of them snuck to the back of the Center. Gina cast one glance back down the hall, feeling suspicious and worried, her heart pounding in her chest. It wasn't until they were almost to the southern exit of town that she dared to speak in a whisper.

"Where are we headed?" she said under her breath.

"Saffron," Orion responded. "I know it's late, but if you are up to it, I'd like to try to reach it by next evening."

"We'll be walking all day," Jason whispered, making a face. "Not my idea, I assure you."

"It's fine," Gina responded, just happy to be with her friends again and headed towards a destination. "Maybe you can show your Abra the psychic Gym."

"Oh!" Jason said, grinning wider. "Great idea."

Orion finally let them speak in their normal voices when they were definitely on Route 5, and Cerulean City was growing fainter in the distance. The sun was starting to rise now, and Gina felt wracked with shivers and like her eyes were sandpaper. It was that odd set of sleep deprivation ailments.

"We met those four people, like Jason wrote to you," Orion explained. "They were able to log us out of the Center's computer remotely." Gina gaped at him, and Orion shrugged. "Don't ask me, I have no idea how. Have to admit, they've got pretty impressive technology."

"Did you check yourselves for homing devices?" Gina asked, only half-joking. Jason laughed.

"Actually, we did check," he said, casting Orion a guilty look. Orion blushed.

"I'm paranoid, I'll be the first to admit that," Orion said.

Gina knew she should feel nervous, confused or just plain dead on her feet. Instead she could not do much more than smile ear to ear as the conversation took turn to many different, lighter topics. Gina had always known that she liked Jason and Orion, but she had never fully realized how important they had become to her until now.

* * *

The euphoria had definitely worn off when the trio reached the impressive golden gates of Saffron City. Gina was too tired to appreciate it, but knew she would be blown away by it once she was allowed to fall into a sleep coma for a few days.

Everything seemed gold to her, but that could have been due to the setting sun. Yawns crippled their conversation as they made their way to one of the many Pokemon Centers. Gina's eyes instantly found the tallest building. It looked like a toy in the distance, but she knew it was the Silph Co. building, and had expanded greatly in the last fifty years. It had been restored, reconstructed and towered at a stunning 99 stories now. Why they hadn't just made the extra floor to make it an even 100, Gina would never know.

Either way, Gina didn't get to dwell on this for very long. They signed themselves up at the Center in the east block, dragged themselves to their rooms, and collapsed in a heap onto their beds.

* * *

Gina woke up the next morning feeling like Gravelers had taken up residence in her throat. She promptly walked to the bathroom and drank water from the sink, then splashed some on her face. Her room was pretty dang yellow, which was sort of an eye sore this early in the morning. She hopped in the shower, struggling to detangle her long brown hair with the single-serving conditioner they offered her, and she actually did a halfway decent job of it.

Orion was up when Gina headed out into the lobby. He waved her over, a tired smile on his face, and she took a seat across from him.

"How you doing?" he asked. "It's like, before 10 a.m., why are you up?"

"Couldn't sleep any more," she said, shrugging. "Weird, I know."

They shared a companionable silence as the waitress took Gina's order and headed away. Gina let out Charmander and Nidoran, but left Pidgey and Sandshrew in their Pokeballs for now. Magikarp too, of course, ought to wait until they were outside. A friendly staff member headed over to them and filled up some bowls with Pokechow, and he refused Gina's marks when she offered them up. "Pokemon eat here for free."

Gina gaped. "Don't they eat you out of house and home?" she asked.

The man laughed. "Since Saffron is the headquarters of the Pokechow franchise, we get sinful deals. Enjoy," he said, bowing briefly to Orion, Gina, and then the Pokemon. Charmander looked at the guy like he was nuts, but ate the food anyway. Orion let out his three as well, and Gina's interest perked up at once. This was the first time she had seen Clefairy since the one time Orion had let it out at Mt. Moon (mainly just to prove to Jason that he hadn't lied about catching it).

The small pink Pokemon had a very strange, blank stare as its default expression. According to Orion, this was just how it behaved on an everyday basis, and he had yet to be able to make it do anything else. Clefairy sat quietly by Meowth and Rattata, eating slowly and staring straight ahead. Gina hadn't understood how Orion could call a Clefairy creepy, but now she kind of understood. They got onto the topic of Mt. Moon, then the strange altercation they had witnessed, and that got them onto the topic of the four trainers who had helped them escape Cerulean.

"I'm not sure what to think," Orion said. "I guess if we never see them again, a part of me will be relieved."

Gina shrugged. "They sound pretty nice. Then again, who knows anymore these days."

Gina was starting to unwind, finally. Fremont would have to be pretty determined to continue looking for his sons, and stay away from Vermillion Gym even longer than he already had. Gina was fully prepared to get the police involved if it came to that, and since they were in Saffron, they could always enlist the help of Jason and Orion's mother. Gina had to admit she was curious to see if Orion would go visit her. She was just starting to think that things had a fighting chance of going back to normal.

Orion's phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out, laughing. "If this is Jason, I'll just assume the world is ending. There's no way he'd willingly wake up… before…"

Orion's expression froze on his face, then left it entirely. All that Gina could tell from his look was that something was very wrong. She put her hands down on either side of the table, prepared to jump up and recall her team at a moment's notice.

"It's Zahlia," Orion said, blinking rapidly a few times. "I don't know what's—"

"What does it say?" Gina asked, reaching out. Orion handed her the phone and immediately recalled his team. Gina looked down at the screen and felt tiny and very young all of the sudden.

_Route 11 SOS_.


	28. Chapter 28 Orion

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 28

Orion Fremont

Orion could not believe these past few weeks.

Actually, he could not believe _himself_ over these past few weeks. The events themselves had been insane enough, but when he looked at his own actions, he was simply flabbergasted. He had willingly walked right into a confrontation with his father, let a bunch of random strangers find out who he and Jason were, and trusted them to help he and his friends escape from Cerulean City. He had played hardball with both his father and the four investigators, behaving more like some hardened detective out of a crime noir than his old, bumbling self. And, even though he had not heard from Zahlia in weeks, he had forgotten all about their last, strangely cut off conversation in light of all the other felt responsible that she was in trouble now, even though he knew it was ridiculous.

Orion had another thing to add to the list of things he could not believe. He could not believe he had just willingly hopped an underground train right back into Vermillion City.

Granted, they were not planning on sticking around for long. Orion lead them around the outskirts of the city, keeping them close to the quieter, rural areas. He was tempted to grab a cab, but didn't want to do so near the Gym area. He would run the risk of being recognized there.

Jason and Gina were quiet as the grave as they walked speedily beside him, not complaining about the distance, the time, or their backpacks that were certainly digging into their shoulders by now. Orion felt a surge of gratitude for them. As much as he tried to play the responsible, poised older brother to Jason, he was sure he wouldn't be able to deal if they hadn't been here too.

Orion checked his phone for the umpteenth time that day. Ever since they'd received the message that morning, he had been struggling to get ahold of Zahlia while directing the group south. All he had been able to hear when he called Zahlia were two words: "no police." She had shoved the phone in her pocket, from the sounds of it, and Orion had remained quiet, listening to what sounded like the wilderness around her. There was another voice, a boy maybe Jason's age asking her a question, and then the reception had cut out. After that he had been unable to reach her; the phone was off or dead.

His texts had gone unanswered as well, of course. The last one he had sent had been an hour ago: _we're in Vermillion now. _He hoped she was still able to check her phone and see that help was on the way, but he had no way of knowing. It made him feel sick.

Orion saw a yellow cab drive by, with no charge from the look of it. He paused for just a moment before flagging it down. "Let me pay," he said to Jason and Gina. "I don't want you to use your Dexes if we can help it."

* * *

The cab ride was tense and quiet. Orion spent most of it looking at his phone, sending himself texts just to see if they went through. He felt mildly car sick when they reached the Eastern side of Vermillion, and he had to take a moment to right himself after he had tossed a fistful of marks at the cabby.

_We're about to start to R11. Where are you?_

Orion knew it was pointless to text by this point, but he still tried. He called and got her voicemail machine, one of those generic ones that said "Y_ou have reached the voice mail box of: 8-227-4876_." He left her a message anyway and pocketed his phone, exchanging a brief look with Jason and Gina. He could tell from their worn, bleak expressions that they were feeling just as daunted as he was.

"We'll just start off, together," he said. "No splitting up whatsoever."

"Right," Jason said. "We're not going to make the traditional horror movie mistake."

"Please don't mention horror movies right now," Gina said, her eyes scanning the darkening skies.

An hour into their walk through the flat, grassy expanse of Route 11, Orion got a text. He dropped a great deal of marks on the ground in his haste to get the phone out of his pocket, and Jason and Gina stooped to help him pick them up. The text was very short.

_21, -156_

Orion frowned at the numbers in absolute confusion for a second before he realized what it was. "Coordinates," he said, reaching his hand out to Jason. "Jason, let me use your Dex."

Jason deposited the Dex in his brother's hand, and after some fumbling to find the backlight, Orion was navigating through it for the map function. He punched the longitude and latitude in, and within a moment the Dex had called up its GPA and was pointing them along the way.

"This way," Orion said, walking quickly in the direction it indicated with its bright yellow arrow. He hit the dimmer part way there to make the screen not so much of an obvious beacon, and he and the others picked their way through steadily encroaching darkness.

"Are we close?" Gina asked a half hour later. Orion squinted at the screen and zoomed out to see how much farther they had to go.

"We are," he said quietly. "Be ready for anything, guys."

Gina made a small sound of acknowledgment, and Orion could see that her silhouette was grasping a Pokeball. Jason too had one in his hand as they crept forward through the trees.

Orion's mind was focused on the goal ahead, but inside his stomach was turning cartwheels. He was painfully aware that they had a small group of Pokemon that hadn't even broken the level 20 mark yet. If Zahlia called for them, though, he had to hope that she knew they could actually help.

There was a small sound; it was the only warning Orion had. A moment later a Pidgeotto soared out from the trees and screeched loudly at him, and Orion fell backwards. He heard Gina shout in alarm and Jason hit the ground as well. A red light went off, and Charmander must have been deployed, because flickering firelight came to his vision.

"Blake!" a female voice hissed from the darkness. "Stop, that's them."

Orion's heart was beating out of his chest, but he could comprehend what was going on. "Zahlia," he said, getting to his feet and instinctively putting a hand up in case the Pidgeotto decided to come back for round two. "Are you okay?"

Gina was back on her feet, and was helping Jason up. Orion peered myopically through the trees and jumped a little when he saw a boy rise up from the grass and fix him with a blank, hard stare. Even in the darkness Orion could see the sharp contrast the boy's dark irises made to the whites of his eyes. Straight black hair fell partially into the boy's face above an awkward, skinny frame.

"Who are you?" the boy asked, his voice even and tense.

Orion took a step forward. "Orion," he said. "Gina and Jason are with me."

"It _is _them, Blake," Zahlia's voice said from somewhere behind the boy. "Let them through."

After a moment of hesitation, the hard look left the young boy's face, and he let out a sigh. "I'm too old for this," he said, then looked up at the Pidgeotto. "Come on, Grouchy."

For one very confusing second, Orion thought that Blake was talking to him. A moment later though, the Pidgeotto flew down from its branch and followed the boy through some underbrush that had been tromped flat. Orion and the others followed suit at once.

It took Orion's eyes a long time to adjust to the dark, and as he blinked around, he heard Zahlia and Blake talking some more.

"I thought he'd be older," Blake was saying. "He doesn't look much older than me."

"He's sixteen," Zahlia said, and for the first time Orion could hear a strain in her voice, like she was very tired. "He's six years older than you."

"He doesn't look sixteen," Blake said. Orion could vaguely see Blake turning to face him. "No offense. You don't look sixteen. But that's a good thing. You'll age really well, or something."

"Zahlia," Orion said, his eyes finally starting to adjust to the darkness. He could see Gina moving forward and crouching down somewhere. "What's going on?"

"Blake and I were attacked by some mugger," Zahlia explained. "I hurt my leg. He's gone, but Blake and I have been stuck here."

"I can't 'zactly carry her," Blake explained even as Orion rushed forward. "And Grouchy doesn't know Fly or anything."

Orion wasn't really listening anymore though. He could finally make out shapes in the dark, and he felt a coiling wave of empathy pain wrack his stomach. Zahlia had been putting it lightly when she said she "hurt her leg." "Mangled" would have been a better term. It had been wrapped, but he could tell that it was bent at a strange angle, and blood was seeping through what looked like an undershirt. He hissed softly at the sight and dug in his bag for painkillers and a bottle of water. He could feel Zahlia's dark eyes watching him.

"Here," he said. "You're not allergic to any medicines, are you?"

"No," Zahlia said, accepting the pill and water quietly. She drank and Orion turned to Blake.

"How long ago did this happen?" he asked.

Blake explained while Zahlia was drinking. "Just before the sun came up."

Zahlia sighed softly, done with the water, and Orion took the bottle back. "My phone reception has been acting up," she explained. "I'm not sure if you've been getting all of my messages, or if I've," she paused for a moment mid-sentence, and Orion became worried anew. "… Been getting all of yours."

"Did either of you see who did this?" he asked, already trying to brainstorm how to get them out of here. "Has it been quiet all day? No one's come back?"

"Just the one guy," Zahlia explained. "He left."

Suddenly something occurred to Orion, and he felt his blood turn to cold sludge and stop in his veins. He felt like he wanted to vomit, but he managed to ask, "do you remember what he looked like?" In that moment an image of Nathan Fremont, clenching his fist on the table in Cerulean, his eyes boring into Orion's, leapt into his mind. Orion tried to convince himself to calm down as Zahlia thought about it.

"Maybe eighteen," she said. "Black hair. Tall, pale, not too muscular. He had a lot of strong Pokemon though. I expect that's how he gets the better of people."

Orion felt the knot of sickness unwork itself. He let out a breath and took a mental tally of the Pokemon he, Jason and Gina had. He suddenly wished he had caught a Tauros somewhere. None of their Pokemon were exactly big enough to help carry Zahlia comfortably back to the nearest town. Meowth, Clefairy and Rattata couldn't exactly do the job. Charmander, Bulbasaur, the two Nidorans… none of the rest of Jason or Gina's team had that kind of strength or size. Orion could carry her for a while, but he knew that would be immensely painful for her, and he honestly wasn't sure he could make the journey all the way back through Route 6 that way. With a groan, he realized that Jason's Abra might have been able to at least teleport Zahlia to a Pokemon Center, but it had not yet been registered and would never be able to figure out where to go. Plus, since Jason had never practiced teleporting with Abra, yet, now would be a very, very bad time to experiment.

"How are you feeling?" Gina asked Zahlia softly, sitting down next to her.

"Better," Zahlia said, and Orion could see right through the lie. "It's not as bad as it looks."

"How did it happen?" Jason asked, frowning deeply.

"More of an accident than anything else," Zahlia explained. "I took a very, very bad tumble during the Pokemon battle. Got too close to the fray."

"What sort of Pokemon did he have?" Gina asked, taking out her Dex and getting ready to write.

"A big Fearow," Zahlia said. "Other than that he used an Arbok. He might have had more but I didn't see them."

Gina wrote this down and Jason shook his head in disbelief. He glanced over at Blake and put out his hand. "I'm Jason."

"Blake," Blake said simply, shaking his hand. Somewhere during this discussion Blake's strange quips had stopped abruptly. He seemed sullen and somber now, and had very little to say.

"The guy," Orion asked, as he looked down at his phone, "You say he was pale, right? Not tan at all? Did he have long hair, or short?"

"Yeah, very pale. And short black hair."

Gav's face swam in Orion's mind, and he knew that the man who had attacked Zahlia and Blake had not been him. After another moment of hesitation, he brought Gav's phone number to his screen.

"I might have to call some other people," Orion explained hesitantly. "I don't know how else we're going to get you both back to a city without involving authorities." He frowned even as he spoke the last words, more questions rising to the top of his mind.

"I can just lean on you," Zahlia said, and Orion looked at her like she was insane. "Use some of you as crutches, so to speak."

"Zahlia, your leg is probably broken in multiple places. There's no way you should risk moving at all if you can help it. Not until we know how bad it is." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, resigning himself to opening up this next can of worms. "Look, are you _sure_ we can't contact the police? They could be here very fast, and we'd be able to report this whack-job."

Zahlia was very quiet for a second as Jason and Gina collaborated over Gina's Pokedex. Finally, she said, "I'd really rather we don't get them involved. I promise I'll explain later." Orion's expression must have been strange, because she conceded a small amount of information. "Blake's ten. He's not supposed to be traveling at all. If we get carded he could get taken away." She saw Orion opening his mouth to suggest an alternative, but put her hand up to stop him. "That's… _part_ of the reason. Now, these people you are going to call. Can they be trusted?"

"If you don't want the police, something tells me these guys are the next best thing," Orion said, his face set into a permanent frown as he hit "send" on the phone and listened while it rang. Something told him that it would take a lot to get Zahlia to tell him more, and that he might not even hear it all. Something also told him he would have to get used to this feeling.

* * *

_Author's Note: I'm back, for the time being. Some of you may have gotten messages from me requesting help with this story, but check out the update on my profile. I've decided that, hell, this story is supposed to be fun. If something doesn't make sense I'm sure a confused reader will let me know, and I'll address the issue when I get to it._


	29. Chapter 29 Victoria

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 29

Victoria Larson

Victoria knew it would be a bad day when Nathan Fremont sought them out at their table in the Pokemon Center. Beth, Kaylee, Gav and she had been pursuing their usual past-time: plotting out points on a map, eating, laughing, and discussing training techniques. It was the "we're normal, we swear" routine that they put on in public, and so far it seemed to have worked on everyone in Cerulean—everyone except for Fremont, of course.

When his shadow blocked out the fluorescents, Victoria peered up at him and smiled her beatific "I'm in the presence of a star" smile. The look on Nathan Fremont's face wiped her smile away pretty fast.

"Um," was all she got to say.

"Okay, so, are you going to tell me where my kids are now, or will we have to go through the BS first?"

"Jason and Orion?" Gav asked. "We've seen them coming and going, but…"

"The BS version, then," Fremont said. Victoria felt fear again, and as usual, that fear turned into anger. She struggled to hold it in, knowing that telling off someone like this would not end well for her.

Beth spoke up. "When did you last see them?"

"See, I thought maybe Orion had hired you guys to watch me," Fremont explained. "Never liked direct confrontation, that kid. If he didn't hire you, that means you have a different reason for tailing me, and I'm sorry," he barked out a laugh that actually caused some nearby tables to pause in their talk, "but I refuse to believe you all are part of some Nathan Fremont fan club."

"Maybe not, after the way you've been treating us," Kaylee said, and Victoria felt her chest tighten in fear for the girl. "This is a pretty crappy way to treat admirers, sir."

Fremont laughed again. "You know what, I think I'm done wasting my time here. If you see my sons, do them a favor and let them know they're being idiots, and I want to talk to them." Fremont headed out through the Center doors again, and Victoria and the others didn't even bother trying to continue chatting and laughing at their table. They gathered up their map and bags and headed straight into Gav's room.

"Wow," Kaylee said, looking shaken up. "I kind of didn't mean to say that to him. Oh man."

"You really need to work on that," Gav said, looking actually angry for once. Victoria felt a little guilty since she herself had been mere moments away from doing something very similar. "You can't just run your mouth off to everyone. There are dangerous people out there."

"Man, you don't have to tell me," Kaylee said, dropping her head into her hands. "This is bad. We should skip town soon."

"Yes, we should," Gav said, his frown still cemented in place. "As much as I wanted to stay and check out the Mt. Moon situation, this is getting too volatile. I vote we're out of here by tonight."

"Fine by me," Victoria said, letting her eyes drift to the window, which was shut tight. She inwardly hoped that the Fremont brothers had managed to make their way safely into Saffron City and could hide from their very frightening father there.

* * *

The day, predictably, got worse. She was in the room she shared with Beth, packing up the last of her things, when there was a knock on her door. She walked over to it and peered through the peep hole before letting Gav into the room. He was holding his cell and his PDA, his "weapons of choice" as she called them. His expression killed any joke she had been about to make, though.

"I got a call from Orion just now," he said. "He, Jason and some friends are at Route 11 and are in trouble."

"Already?" Victoria asked incredulously. She was calculating how it could be possible for Fremont to get there so fast, but Gav shook his head.

"Not Fremont. A friend of theirs sent out an SOS that she was hurt out at Route 11 and they went to go help her. Turns out they can't move her easily though, she's got a busted leg."

Victoria's face instantly molded into the familiar lines of shrewd suspicion. "Why don't they call the police?"

"I asked the same thing. Orion says his friend wants to keep this away from the authorities for now."

"That's rather suspicious," Beth said from her side of the room. Victoria was sort of surprised to hear her speak up; she'd thought she was in the bathroom gathering the rest of her things. "But then again, you and Kaylee don't like the police, either."

"Either way, I'm not sure if we should go or not," Gav said. "Kaylee is for it, I'm undecided."

Beth nibbled her lip. "If you and Victoria decide to go, I'll come. If not… I'll understand."

"What does that mean?" Victoria asked. "Do you think we should go?"

"It _could _be a trap," Beth admitted. "The timing of all of this is, weird, to say the least. But, it could _not_ be a trap, too."

Gav turned to Victoria, and in that moment, she realized something. He already knew what his opinion was, but he wanted her advice first. Beth's and Kaylee's opinions made a difference, but it was to Victoria that he turned now, waiting for some guidance. The revelation took her off guard for a moment, and she remembered what Beth had told her many days before: _Gav wouldn't want you being like that. He respects your opinion, can't you tell?_

After a long moment of earnest, truthful thought, Victoria spoke.

"I believe in taking the path that leads to the fewest regrets," she explained slowly. "And I think that, even if this is a strange situation… if they really are in trouble and we do nothing, we will regret it."

"You're right," Gav said, and something in his face changed. Victoria couldn't be sure, but in that moment she wondered if she had just changed Gav's mind 180 degrees. "Alright, ladies," he said to them. "Get ready for a long journey. We'll be traveling fast."

As he headed out, Victoria smiled. It was the last thing any sane person would be doing in a situation like this. With the unknown spilling out ahead of them like a river of ink, questions smothering their better judgment, and the prospect of many hard, sleepless days ahead, she knew smiling was ridiculous. Yet, realizing that her sister had been right, and she had the respect of the man she, too, had been growing to respect… it was enough to make her behave a little illogically for a while.

* * *

The four trainers made good time to the Cerulean City train station that would allow them to cut straight underneath Saffron into Vermillion. The wait was what was killer though. It was a strange, dark-before-the-dawn time while they waited for the 5:12 Cerulean-Saffron b-line, and all of them were feeling a little out-of-sorts from staying up most of the night.

Beth was miserably speed-eating a plate of pancakes from a nearby food court, and Victoria joined her a moment later. Gav and Kaylee grabbed power bars and orange juice and took turns going upstairs into the outside so they could get cell reception to talk to Orion on the phone. When they weren't doing that, they were plotting their path via GPS. By the time Beth and Victoria were done eating the train was pulling up. It would deposit them dangerously close to Gym territory, but they knew this was their fastest route. Beth also reasoned that the chances of Fremont being back there were slim; he appeared to want to look for his kids in Cerulean some more. The four flashed their tickets, got them punched, and bustled off to a train compartment. Most were full, but they found one to share with a kid who was playing a handheld game with headphones in. He seemed completely oblivious to their presence for the most part.

On the train ride, Victoria listened to one of Orion and Gav's conversations—or, to one side of it, anyway.

"Is it swollen? … Not too bad, good. You might want to give her another pain-killer. You did? Good. Take it easy after that one, though. Don't want to thin the blood too much. We're on the train now, yeah. No, underground. Yeah, it will get us to Vermillion at around 3 p.m. Yeah, it has to make a bunch of stops along the way, but it's the fastest route we could get. Can you hear me? … Okay. Bye."

Gav hung up and sighed. He closed his eyes, and when he didn't open them again for a good five minutes, Victoria said, "hey," softly. "How are they?"

Gav smiled slightly at her, and nodded. "Okay. Their friend sounds like she's holding up well. They've got some water, thank God, so they're not dehydrating. Orion says they'll be okay until we get there."

Victoria nodded. On the other side of Gav she could see Kaylee and Beth staring over at them, slightly awed expressions on their faces, as if they were watching a good tennis game. They saw her looking and both immediately pretended to be fascinated with the adverts on the wall instead.

Victoria spent a very, very long time studying a single ad that was plastered up above Gav's head. It was a silhouette of a very distinctive man. This man had a cape, tall boots and hair thrown back into striking spikes. His silhouette was holding a Pokeball, and the text beneath the image read: _Out of your League._

Victoria had no idea what the advert was for, but it was very obviously Lance, the Dragonmaster and most famous member of any Elite 4, past or present. Victoria frowned as she stared at the poster's glossy finish, old questions bubbling up in her mind. Finally she decided to talk to Gav about it, since Kaylee and Beth had fallen asleep long ago. Victoria could never sleep on trains. Gav, evidently, could not either.

"Gav," she said quietly. Brown eyes turned to look up at her. "Sorry, if you're busy…"

He laughed softly. "Do I look busy?" he asked. He had been in the process of removing and cleaning the screen and battery pack of his PDA, but Victoria supposed he did this mostly out of nerves or boredom.

"This is going to seem odd, but do you know where the rest of the 25% of the funding for the Expo and Initiative come from?"

Apparently this was indeed a very random question. Gav's frown displayed his confusion, and Victoria elaborated. "75% comes from the Elite 4… this funds the Expo, Initiative and—"

"And the Gyms, yes," Gav said, catching on.

"Right," Victoria said. "I was just wondering if, in your research, you ever found out where the other 25% comes from."

"You're really interested in economics, aren't you?" Gav asked, a smile coming to his face.

"It's important," Victoria said flippantly. "If we're ever going to have a balanced, stable society that's a good place to start."

"Well, to answer your question, no… we haven't figured that one out. Still the same old 'anonymous backers' story." Gav seemed amused with her, so Victoria frowned at him.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, really," Gav said, shrugging. "Just… you're kind of hard to figure out."

Victoria wasn't really sure what to say to that, so she didn't say anything. Instead they waited for a subject change to flow into the conversation naturally, which it did as soon as the train hit a slight bump in the tracks. The kid who was sharing the compartment with them was asleep against the window. He had a backpack at his feet, which was partially open, and a magazine of questionable nature slid out and across the floor. Victoria's face twisted into a very awkward expression and Gav looked like he was struggling not to crack up as he slid it back into the kid's bag and shoved the bag back upright.

"Well then," he said to Victoria.

"Yup," she responded, and they shared a smile that turned into silent laughter.

* * *

By the time the train arrived at its stop in Saffron, it had been over 24 hours since Nathan Fremont had leered at them in the Cerulean City Center, demanding to know the whereabouts of his sons. The train was, thankfully, right on time, and Gav, Kaylee, Beth and Victoria began heading off to Route 11 at once. It was going to be a long journey across Vermillion City, though, and after a brief debate they decided to pool their money for a cab ride through the heart of the city.

"You're gonna use Onix, right Gav?" Kaylee asked as soon as they were out of the cab and heading towards the Eastern exit of town.

"Gonna have to," he said. "Nothing else we have can transport someone easily."

"Ooh," Beth said, smiling in spite of everything. "We get to see Onix."

"He's probably loopy by now," Kaylee said disapprovingly. "You really don't let him out enough."

"Did too," Gav countered, "Back when we were camping in the wild," he added pointedly. Kaylee looked sheepish. At the mention of Pokemon being loopy from extended Pokeball captivity, Victoria guiltily took Metapod's ball from her belt and let her Pokemon out.

"Oh, is this the Eternal Metapod?" Gav asked at once, grinning.

"AKA Weepinbel?" Kaylee added. Beth gave Victoria an apologetic grin as Victoria glared at all of them and picked Metapod up to carry it while they walked.

Gav consulted his PDA and lead them in a slightly northeast direction as they walked. Metapod had no expressions, from what Victoria could discern, but it seemed overjoyed to be outside in the fresh air. She made a mental note to let it out more often, feeling massively guilty for cooping it up for so long.

"Orion?" Gav asked into his phone. "Yeah, we're close. You should be able to see or hear us soon."

"I do," a very faint voice said from a distant patch of trees. "Think… you, there."

"That's us," Gav confirmed. "Be there in a sec." He hung up and the four of them jogged the last few paces to the line of trees.

"Hey," Orion said, sounding somewhat winded, which Victoria reasoned was probably sleep deprivation and stress. "Thank you for getting here so fast. Thank you for answering at all."

Victoria's eyes had traveled instantly to the not three, but five people in the small patch of brush. Dusky twilight was setting in, but she could still see that there were two new girls and one new boy. Two looked related, as they had the same dark hair and dark, morose eyes, but the other girl looked like a friend of Jason's. The fact that she was holding a Pokedex was a pretty good clue that she was an Initiate.

"Gina," the girl said, standing up to shake Victoria's hand. Victoria shook it once and dropped it, falling victim to her natural prejudice against Initiates and the strangeness of this situation. She did not give Gina her name and instead looked down at the injured girl.

"Zahlia," that girl said, remarkably clearly for someone who looked like they had a compound fracture at the very least. Victoria nodded to her and glanced over at Gav, who was talking business with Orion.

"We probably should take her to the Vermillion hospital," Gav was saying. "I know that's probably not where you and Jason want to be, but it's safest."

"Of course," Orion said. "Absolutely." He cast a glance to Jason and Gina, who nodded.

"The three of us can camp out somewhere else," Gina reasoned. "We don't have to check into the Center."

"Good idea," Jason said. "Um, not to bug ya, but how are we gonna get her there?"

"Noisily and with no subtlety, I'm afraid," Gav said. He stepped away from the group and glanced around at the trees as if measuring for a moment. Then he released a Pokemon that just seemed to grow and grow and grow. Victoria's eyes widened as she wound up craning her neck to look up at the enormous face that peered down at the group.

"Holy bajeezus freakin' what?" Jason exclaimed. It appeared to be the first thing that popped into his head.

"I'm gonna need help getting her up here," Gav explained as Onix lowered its face to the ground and he climbed up onto it.

"Grumpy can help," the black-haired boy said, speaking up for the first time. A Pidgeotto swooped down and hovered, flapping hard, over Zahlia. Jason and Orion kneeled down and each put an arm under her shoulders, and lifted her to her feet. Zahlia let out a small breath of air, but other than that her expression remained neutral. Victoria took a moment to admire her pain threshold, even if she did have no freaking clue who this girl was. "Grumpy" the Pidgeotto lifted Zahlia up the few feet it took to get her to Gav, and Gav lowered her down gently onto Onix's back.

"He's got a little niche there, feel it? It's a great seat. Just anchor yourself in there, and we'll get others up here." He motioned for Kaylee to hop up next, and she helped Beth and Victoria clamber up onto Onix. "I've never had this many people ride him before, so you might have to hold on pretty tight. He's a smooth sailer though, so you shouldn't be jostled too badly."

Victoria turned around to help Beth find a place to sit, and she noticed from the corner of her eye that Jason and Gina were staring open-mouthed at Onix's side, whispering to one another. She stared down at them, confused, but a second later she knew why.

"I'm sorry," Gina said, speaking up hesitantly as Gav reached down to help her up. "We… we couldn't help noticing that your Onix has a bunch of…" she trailed off, and Jason picked up where she stopped.

"He's got the battle scars, the ones I read about. This Onix belonged to Brock, didn't it?"

Gina took in a sharp breath of air and glanced quickly at Jason, clearly not pleased with his lack of tact. Victoria could feel the tension radiating off of Gav and Kaylee. Orion helped Jason up and murmured something angrily to him, but a moment later Gav sighed.

"Yes, it did. He's old now though, so he's not much of a fighter." There was a brief silence as everyone went back to situating themselves and checking that nothing was left behind. The black-haired boy recalled his oddly-named Pidgeotto, and Gav did a head-count.

"We're all set?" he asked. There was a general murmur of consensus. "Alright then. Take it away, buddy," Gav said, and he patted the side of the Onix's head. It started off slowly through the underbrush, snaking its way through trees and easing out into the flat plains. Gav had been right; as freaked out as Victoria was by this mode of travel, Onix was a pretty good driver.

* * *

It didn't take long at all for Victoria and the others to figure out who Gina and Blake were. The fact that Blake kept crouching over near Zahlia, talking quietly to her and checking on her leg, and the way they shared the same coloring and facial features could only mean they were related. Victoria was venturing that they were siblings, but she supposed they could be cousins as well. Gina also revealed that she was a good friend of Orion and Jason's, and that she had met them between Viridian and Pewter. Victoria put two and two together and figured that she was the unnamed third Initiate from the Mt. Moon article.

"So," Gav said to Gina halfway through Route 6, "If you don't mind my asking, what exactly did you all see in Mt. Moon?"

Victoria smiled; she had to admit, Gav was a dedicated worker.

Gina rubbed the back of her neck. "Um… yeah, you can pretty much ask us anything at this point, I figure." She looked at Orion, who nodded slightly to her.

Victoria listened as Gina and Jason took turns explaining the events that had occurred on Mt. Moon. When she mentioned she had taken a picture of one of the men, Gav's double-take almost sent him rolling off of Onix.

"Do you think I could…?"

"Oh, uh, sure," Gina said, digging out her Dex and hitting some commands. She handed it over to Gav, and a moment later the Dex was hooked up to his PDA. There was a moment of silence as the data transfer took place.

Gina coughed slightly. "Um… if I could, I've got a few more questions. If, it's okay."

She sounded so completely uncertain that Victoria actually felt a little bad for her for a moment. Gav nodded to her. "If I can answer, I will."

"Alright, well… first, I was wondering if you know what those rocks are, in the photo."

"Fossils," Gav said at once. Victoria was mildly impressed, and very curious to see the photo. She put her hand out, and Gav gave her the PDA so she could look. "I'm not sure what kind they are, but the ridges in the one by his foot are unmistakable. Plus, I can't imagine he'd want to save regular rocks that way."

"Oh," Jason said. "Wow, huh. I thought maybe they were moon stones. How'd you know they were fossils?"

"Spent a lot of time around them as a kid," Gav explained. He turned back to Gina. "What was your next question?"

Victoria looked up from the harried-looking man in the picture and glanced at Gina. The girl looked enormously uncomfortable now.

"Um… I was wondering, if… you two are Ando Harrison's kids?"

Kaylee did a big double-take to Gina that pretty much answered her question. Then she nodded and went, "Ohh. The Onix gave us away, huh?"

"Well, that, and I read the pamphlet-thing from the front of the Gym. Some woman said she thought maybe you two were out on your journeys now."

"Well, yes," Gav said a bit shortly. A big subject change ended the conversation: "How are you holding up… Zahlia, was it?"

"Well enough," Zahlia answered. Her voice was strained, but she still seemed alert enough to pay attention to the conversation.

Gina and Jason stopped asking questions and settled into silence. Orion spoke in quiet murmurs to Zahlia and Blake, and Beth nodded off in another one of Onix's back niches. Victoria looked up at the stars as Kaylee and Gav looked over his PDA and pointed things out to one another.

She wanted to ask the question that was on everyone's mind: what are we going to do once we get back to Vermillion? She couldn't quite make herself ask it just yet though. After their very harrying past 24 hours, all she wanted to do was rest her mind.


	30. Chapter 30 Jason

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 30

Jason Fremont

Jason woke up the following afternoon with his mouth open. His throat was dry, but it was nothing compared to the desert conditions of his eyes. He coughed and rolled to the side, groaning piteously as he flailed to get himself out of his sleeping bag. His head was pounding and his limbs ached.

When he was done fumbling with the zipper and managed to crawl his way out into the hot afternoon sun, he had no clue where he was for a while. He sat there, blinking and disoriented, for a few seconds before the memories started to return.

Onix had arrived at the outskirts of Vermillion a little past ten p.m. last night. Gav and the others had taken Zahlia to a cab and, presumably, to the hospital. Orion, Gina, Blake and himself had had to stay back, since they weren't supposed to be spotted in Vermillion. Kaylee stayed with them and Orion and she had been texting nonstop all night to the other group. Jason had wanted to stay up to get updates, but exhaustion had set on all at once.

Gina was a little ways away, slumped morosely over a small camp fire. She poked some more sticks into it and shivered, then looked up at Jason. They nodded to one another, and Jason flopped down on the ground beside her with a groan.

"Water?" he asked, and she passed him a thermos. After he was done guzzling, he wiped his mouth and sighed. "Any word?"

"Yeah," she said. "Zahlia will be off her feet for about two weeks. No one's asking questions… chalked it up to a trainer injury. So far so good."

"Ah," Jason said, unable to think of anything more interesting to say.

Kaylee emerged from behind him, stretching and yawning. She nodded to them before turning towards the distant city. "Gav's on his way back. Victoria and Beth are gonna stay with Zahlia for now."

"Okay," Gina said, also unable to think of anything good to say.

Time passed sluggishly for them. Blake apparently had still been asleep in a pile of what Jason had thought was laundry, because he crawled out when the sun was a little lower in the sky. He looked how Jason felt, and didn't speak to them at all. Under normal circumstances Jason would have tried to make small talk, but as of now he was lucky his brain still had basic comprehension skills. All he could think about was a Pokemon Center room with a bed and free food.

Gav arrived a little while later. Jason could see him approaching from the distance, and Kaylee ran over to meet him halfway. The two siblings spoke briefly before heading back.

"Alright," Gav said. "The rest of us should head back to Saffron. If we go now we can catch the 7:15 underground."

"What about the others?" Orion asked, one of the first things he had said all day.

"They'll come join us once Zahlia's cleared for travel," Gav explained.

"Fair," Jason commented mildly. He glanced over at Blake though. "But, what about him? Will he be able to get into Centers if he's underage?"

Blake dug in his pocket and flashed an ID at Jason. "Zahlia didn't want me to try this at a hospital," Blake said. "They check things better there, but this has gotten me into Centers just fine."

Jason took the ID and blinked down at it. Blake's strangely morose, skeptical face peered out from the card, which was horizontally oriented versus vertically to show that he was over 12. Jason stared down at the birth date and did some math while he handed it off to Gav.

"I thought you were ten," he said, confused. The ID stated he had turned 12 last March.

"I am," Blake said simply, the corner of his mouth quirking up. "I guess you're a little out of sorts."

Jason figured out where he had gone wrong in his train of thought and grinned tiredly. "Uh, yeah, just a little."

Blake was done with his one moment of humor, though. "So, when will Zahlia be out of the hospital, exactly?" he asked of Gav.

Gav returned his ID, frowning. "In a few days she'll be discharged, but she'll need to stay off it for the remainder of the two weeks," he said. "She said it will be fine if we keep in touch with her via phone."

"Well," Jason said, getting up and cringing as his back popped. What was he, 85 years old? "Let's get going, then."

* * *

The next week was spent very quietly in Saffron City. Gav, Kaylee, Blake and Orion spent much of their time on the internet or on the phone, and when Jason tried to see if he could help, he was for the most part turned away. This annoyed him after the first day, but Gina reasoned with him and managed to convince him to leave them alone for a while.

Blake was like a ghost for the most part, drifting in and out of the Center and keeping to himself. Jason felt bad for him; it had to be hard enough to be separated from your family when they were injured, but he also was surrounded by people he didn't know at all. Gina and Jason tried to talk to him once or twice, but to no avail. He offered them a bland smile and a "thank you for coming to help," and that was it.

Gina and Jason spent a lot of time outdoors with their Pokemon. Charmander and Bulbasaur seemed a bit put off that they hadn't been allowed much free time in the past few weeks, and Jason couldn't blame them for that. Gina spent some time trying to get her Magikarp to do things other than flop around, and failed.

On the ninth day of their incredible boredom, Zahlia, Victoria and Beth returned early. Jason was very relieved; he wasn't sure how much more of that he could have taken.

"How are you feeling?" Orion asked, a couple of paces away from Zahlia. Blake had walked right up to her to check out her cast and crutches, and Victoria and Beth had gone over to Gav and Kaylee to talk.

Zahlia smiled at Orion in a very genuine, warm way, and Jason immediately looked to see the look on his brother's face. Sure enough, his ears were turning red. Jason stifled his grin as Zahlia said, "Much better. It was a lucky break, easy to treat. I just have to use these for the next few weeks and keep the cast on for about a month."

"Not bad," Orion said, glancing to the ground. Gav came over and broke the awkwardness, which Jason was somewhat grateful for since he was having a hard time watching his brother squirm.

"Let's all grab a bite to eat and figure out what's going to happen now," he said. "Zahlia, did you want to lie down, or are you okay with this?"

"I'm fine," she said predictably. "I've got my pain meds and need to take them with a meal anyway."

A little while later their group was taking up a large table in the Center, and they found they were getting a lot of attention from the waiters. Jason figured that parties of seven or more had a mandatory gratuity, or something. It was a little annoying to constantly have their talks intruded upon, and Gav seemed to be on the same wavelength.

"Thanks, we're fine," he said to the over-enthusiastic waiter for the fifth time. "We don't need anything." Gav watched the man's back as he retreated to another table. "Anyway, we know that Jason and Orion want to stay away from Freddy."

Jason rather liked their code word for his dad. "Yup," he said. "No Freddy encounters would be good."

"Gina, Victoria and Beth don't really have any reason to avoid Centers or public attention."

"Not really," Gina said, sounding hesitant. "But trust me, Orion's tried to get rid of me plenty of times, and I'm not a fan of the idea."

Jason grinned at Gina from across the table and gave her knuckles. Gav smiled ever so slightly.

"In reality, Kaylee and I could use a safe place." He exchanged a glance with his sister. "We've been talking about it, and it's kind of rough running around like this."

"Where would you go, though?" Beth asked, frowning. "How could you be completely sure that somewhere was secure?"

"There's a little trick," Kaylee said. She exchanged a look with Gav, and he nodded. "A sort of way to tell."

Everyone seemed put off by that. Gav rubbed the back of his head and sighed.

"I think we should pay our tab," he said, "And play our favorite game of 'let's shove everyone in my room.'"

* * *

"So, this is how it works," Gav explained. The little screen of his PDA was somewhat hard to see, but he had enlarged the text as big as it would go. Right now he was showing them a site that had a little banner at the bottom reading Rock Lives On! "When we see these words, it can be a catch phrase to... sort of, attract people like us."

"People like you?" Jason asked, frowning.

"Rocket-thwarters," Kaylee said, smiling at Victoria. "Anyway, it means that they also believe that TR is at large."

Zahlia raised her hand from her place on the bed. "How are you certain it isn't someone _from _Team Rocket, trying to lure you in?"

"We have to be careful," Gav said. He called up an instant message with the site admin, who was online. "This is the 'secret handshake' so to speak," he explained, and typed in: _Do you mean Rock n' Roll?_

There was a pause while they waited for the site admin to respond. In the meantime, Gav explained. "Kay and I got in touch with some people this way and got some of our info from them. We had to do a long dance with them in order for them to trust us, and vice versa."

"Sounds familiar," Orion said, smiling.

"Oh, he wrote back," Kaylee said, leaning over Gav. Jason read on the screen:

_Yeah, I'm a huge Last Day fan. I hear the band's getting back together. You into them?_

Gav sighed and wrote back. _Yeah, they're awesome. _Then he closed the chat box. Jason frowned, not sure what the point of that had been.

"Well," Kaylee said, "That was an example of someone who simply enjoys Rock music, and has no clue what we're talking about."

"So… what do they say when they _do_ know what you're talking about?" Gina asked.

"They'll say 'no,' when I ask if it's Rock and Roll."

"Then we write back: 'good. Can we talk?'"

"And that's how it works?" Jason asked. "What if they say 'what are you talking about?' or something?"

"Then we stop talking to them," Gav said, shrugging. "That's happened to us once or twice."

"So, we're going to talk to some people online and see if we can find some allies?" Orion asked. "Interesting concept. What are we looking for, in the long run?"

"Ideally," Gav said, "someone with tech support who can help us mask our identities. There's only so much I can do by myself. Ultimately it would be even better if we could find a safe house, somewhere we can use as a base sometimes. That's a little much to hope for, though."

"Man," Gina said, shaking her head. "This is intense."

"Sure is," Orion agreed. "But it would be good for us to have a place like that."

Zahlia and Blake were pretty quiet now, and Gav turned to look at them. "We don't know much about you, to be honest. You seem to be good in Orion and Jason's book, and so far we haven't had any reason to distrust them."

Zahlia smiled slightly. "That's as much as can be expected in a situation like this. I have to say though, in light of recent events, I would very much like to benefit from the things you've mentioned. Blake and I could use some anonymity."

"Is there any other reason for this, besides the mugging?" Victoria asked shrewdly. "And Blake being underage."

Zahlia didn't answer right away. Finally she said, "Yes. We have more reasons. And I suspect it is not something we'll be able to keep quiet."

Victoria smiled in a rather unkind way. "You've got that right," she said.

"Our situation is similar to that of Jason and Orion's," Zahlia explained. "We have family members we would prefer to stay away from."

"Namely?" Victoria asked.

"The man who attacked us was my brother," Zahlia said with very little feeling in her tone. Just about everyone in the room did a double-take at that.

"Why didn't you…?" Orion asked, blinking rapidly and shaking his head.

"I'd hoped there would be no reason to have to talk about it," Zahlia admitted. "But, that's the real reason I didn't want the police involved."

There was a long stretching silence. Gav's PDA went off. Jason looked at the screen; it was the site admin guy saying _Hello? You there? _Gav shut down the device.

"Okay, that's it," Victoria said, turning around in the cramped space to face everyone. "We need to get everything out in the open right now if we're ever going to move forward. It seems to me there is a lot going on, and the fact that it's all happening at once either means someone is lying, or something much bigger is going on that we aren't aware of." Gav nodded slightly, drumming his fingers on the desk. Victoria sighed. "Beth and I will go first. I'm Victoria Larson, and this is my sister Beth. We lived in Celadon and had a fairly normal life. Our father—" she exchanged a look with Beth, and Beth took over.

"Our father was arrested for embezzlement from his firm," Beth explained. "He's still got a few more years left of his sentence. We were training our Pokemon and… being very bored until we met Gav and Kaylee a few months ago. I suppose it's worth mentioning that there was a bad experience at Lavender Town's Pokemon Tower, we were attacked by a ton of Ghosts and filed a police report about it."

"The end," Victoria said. "Who's next?"

Gina shrugged and put her hand up. "My story is pretty boring, and short. I'm from Pallet, I was part of the July Initiative, and I met Jason and Orion a few months back. Jason and I met in Viridian, and we hooked up with Orion in Pewter. And… yeah. You've seen the photo I have on my Dex of the Mt. Moon guy and… that's all."

Jason sighed and shrugged. "I'm Jason Fremont, son of Nathan Fremont, but I've lived in Saffron most of my life. I'm an Initiate too and found Orion in Pewter… we hadn't seen each other in a super long time, so, we decided to travel around together. Hah, my story's more boring than yours," he teased Gina.

"Not even," she said.

Orion went next. "I'm the one who lived with Nathan Fremont for most of my life, and I started to notice him behaving strangely in our home in Vermillion. He'd go away for long periods of time, unexplained, and one night our house apparently got broken into. On that same night he got thrashed pretty bad, bruises and injuries everywhere. He flipped when I saw. I realized he had some sort of files hidden under his bed, but covered in this powder so I couldn't read them without giving myself away. That was pretty much enough weirdness for me, so I skipped town and met up with Jason a month or so later."

Gav exchanged a look with Kaylee, and after a second, he began. "Kaylee and I are Ando Harrison's children, and Brock's grandchildren. Our parents and grandfather were killed, supposedly accidentally, in our youth. We've been gathering evidence that points to the idea that this isn't true at all. In a nutshell, we think that Team Rocket is still at large and they have had a hand in many crimes throughout the past 50 years, including perhaps, deaths."

"Wow," Kaylee said, shaking her head. "It sounds so psycho in summary-version."

"Tell me about it," Gav grumbled. "This is why we usually don't talk about it to others."

Jason was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open. He had not known this about Gav and Kaylee, partly because he hadn't even known until recently that they were related to Brock. All they had revealed to Orion, Gina and he prior to this was the part about gathering evidence against Team Rocket. Jason took a moment to let that sink in, his head spinning. When the silence stretched on for too long, though, Victoria cleared her throat at Blake and Zahlia.

Blake sighed. "Boring story, part three. I'm from Fuchsia. My dad is IT support for the Safari Zone. He made me my license so I can travel around on my own. He's real laid back, doesn't care if I go do my own thing."

"I have a question," Gina asked. "Are you and Zahlia cousins, or…?"

"Siblings," Blake said. "She's my half-sister. Same mom, divorced twice. I went to live with my dad in Fuchsia when I was really young."

"_My _question," Victoria said, "Is about this 'attacked by your brother' thing."

Zahlia hesitated. "Yes. It was our older brother, Zeke. We haven't seen him in years. I'm not sure if Blake ever even met him before now."

"Can't say I'm thrilled to have made his acquaintance," Blake said dully.

"Any idea why he's being violent towards you?" Gav asked.

Zahlia shrugged. "Not sure. He lives with my father, and we're not sure where. Neither of them have been in touch."

"I'm confused," Jason said. "Your family tree is bizarre."

"Zeke and I both have the same parents," Zahlia explained. "He's the eldest. Father left with him when I was quite young. I stayed with Mother. Blake is mother's son with her new husband, Lars. Lars and she separated, though, and Lars moved to Fuchsia with Blake."

Jason frowned. "I think I get it," he said. "More or less, anyway."

"Is that all?" Zahlia asked.

"Is that all you have to mention?" Victoria countered. Zahlia nodded.

"Your last name," Gav said quietly, though, a moment later. "Nakawa. It sounds very familiar to me."

"That would be my father, Vaughn Nakawa," Zahlia said simply. "He's a pretty well-known name in Fuchsia."

"He works with the Gym, doesn't he?" Jason asked suddenly, a fact from his Pokemon e-reader jumping to mind.

"Yes," Zahlia said. "He's quite active in the Gym politics of Fuchsia. You've probably read his name in papers on policymaking."

"Yeah, 'cause I read those all the time," Jason said in friendly sarcasm. Victoria, however, had another unfriendly look on her face.

"Weren't going to mention that part without prompting, huh?" she asked.

Zahlia regarded her very evenly. "Forgive me for it not leaping to my mind. It's been a harrying past few weeks."

That seemed to get Victoria off her case, at least for the time being. Gav cleared his throat to cut the tension.

"Well, thank you everyone for being truthful in this little pow wow session. I think we should all get some rest for now. I'm going to keep looking for people who are supportive to our... various needs. It's good that I know what I need to know from all of you, now. It'll make life a lot easier."

Everyone split off to their various rooms, and Gina headed into Jason's with him. They flopped down on the bed, leaning back against the wall, and simultaneously let out as many members of their teams that would fit in the space.

"This is freaking nuts," Jason said glumly. "I can't believe this."

"You and me both," Gina said.

"Man, I feel really bad for you," he said suddenly, turning on his side to face her. "Your life was actually _normal_ before you met Orion and me." He frowned a little, bothered by that thought. "I'm sorry."

Gina laughed. "Don't be," she said simply. "I just hope there's a good place for everyone to hang out and not be harassed by… well..."

"The world?" Jason suggested.

"The world," Gina agreed.

"I guess we'll just have to see," Jason said, watching as Bulbasaur wrapped Sandshrew in its vines and lifted it in the air. Sandshrew's little black eyes became enormous and he couldn't tell if it was thrilled or terrified. "Gina, is that okay?" he asked, pointing.

"Um… I guess," she said doubtfully. Sandshrew wiggled in the air and Bulbasaur turned it upside down. "Maybe it's exposure therapy," she said, shrugging. "Bulbasaur doesn't' exactly seem like the bullying type."

"It's always the quiet ones," Jason said ominously, and Gina snorted and poked him in the stomach.

* * *

Four days of relative peace later, Jason got the text from Gav: _I found one. _

For the most part the nine trainers had been staying away from one another, hanging out only in their preset groups. Zahlia and Blake had been keeping to her room, since Zahlia wasn't supposed to walk unless necessary. Gav and the others had been hard at work on whatever it was they did, and Orion, Gina and Jason had kept away from them, training on occasion.

Jason wrote back: _can we come 2 your room?_

Gav's affirmative had the nine trainers smashed into his room in a matter of moments as he wrote on an instant messenger to the owner of a Breeding site. The web page was pretty simple, a dark green background with white text. It read in loopy cursive that hurt Jason's eyes: _Edith's Breeding Grounds — Viridian Forest._

"Viridian Forest, huh?" Jason asked. "I guess that's as good a place as any to breed Pokemon."

"So, she answered 'no' to the 'Rock and Roll' question?" Gina asked. Gav nodded.

"We've both established that we do not believe TR to be dead," he said. "But this is looking like it'll be one big trust game for a while. It's good, though. If she offered to meet up with us so quickly, I'd just be suspicious."

"Unless that's what she _wants_ you to think," Victoria pointed out. Kaylee let out a huge groan.

"Not this again!" she exclaimed, flopping backwards onto Beth, who laughed. "I wish we could all just carry around pocket lie-detectors!"

"In a perfect world," Gav said off-handedly. "Well, this will take a while, guys. I'll let you know when I know more."

"So we can leave?" Beth asked from under Kaylee.

"Yup."

The group shuffled uncomfortably out of the room and closed the door behind Gav and Victoria, who had stayed behind with him. Gina looked like she was deep in thought, and Jason gave her a questioning look.

"They behave strangely, for a couple," Gina said thoughtfully. "Not that I'd really know what normal couple behavior is."

Kaylee and Beth, who had been part of the way down the hall, turned back to Gina. They had interesting smiles on their faces, and Gina looked startled when she realized they were looking at her. "What?" she asked.

"You thought Gav and Victoria were dating?" Kaylee asked, the grin still firmly in place.

"They… they aren't?" Gina asked, and Jason stifled a grin at the embarrassment on her face.

"No, but _thank you_," Beth said, exchanging a devious look with Kaylee and heading off down the hall. Gina just stared after them, bewildered.

"Girls, huh? Make no sense," Jason said.

"No kidding," Gina said. After a second, a look of realization came to her face. "Wait."

Jason's laughter and Gina's indignant protests echoed down the hall.


	31. Chapter 31 Gav

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 31

Gav Harrison

For two weeks, Gav lived in his room. Kaylee brought him food for the most part, nagging him to eat at least twice a day. He slept when he needed to, ate to placate Kaylee, and continued corresponding with Edith.

_I'm off the beaten path in the forest. You won't find my place unless you know where it is. — E_

Victoria visited him often, and they put their heads together on backup plans if they could not gain Edith's trust for a meeting or more. Victoria did searches for him on the Center computers, using Gav's trick for accurate web surfing. He didn't really expect much else out there, though. Kaylee and he had just about tapped the net's resources of allies last year, and the only reason Edith had not been contacted then was due to the fact that her website was fairly new.

_Are you able to leave your breeding grounds for a meeting? Whenever you are comfortable with one. — G_

Gav was at least grateful that the others weren't too irked with him for taking so long on this particular task. Zahlia insisted that being off her feet wasn't a problem for her, and Kaylee and Beth seemed distracted spending time together. When Gav asked her what she and Beth did, she simply said "you know, girl stuff… all the stuff you don't do with me. Shopping, movies, spa trips…"

"We have money for you to use on spa trips?" Gav asked, frowning.

"Gotta run!"

_I don't leave here if I can help it. And no offense, G, but I'm not 100% sold on you. — E_

_Not a problem. Feel free to ask us questions. — G_

Orion visited him the most after Victoria and Kaylee. Gav found himself quickly developing a healthy amount of respect for the eldest Fremont brother. Now that a fair number of weeks had gone by without anyone suddenly betraying the rest of the group, Orion's true personality came through. He was almost too helpful sometimes.

"Are you sure? I've been helping Victoria look things up on the Center computers, but I feel like, there must be something else I can do."

"It's alright, Orion, really. I promise I'll let you know the second I think of anything you can assist with. Okay?"

_How many of you are there? — E_

_9 of us total. Not all of us are full time Rockers. — G_

_How many of you are? — E_

_Myself and my sister, and two of our friends. The other five have been affected by Rock and all of us could use more allies. — G_

In between the encoded Q and A sessions with Edith, he did more research into the photograph he had downloaded from Gina. The man's face didn't pop up on a cursory facial-recognition scan of the most popular Kanto search engine, but Gav knew that this didn't necessarily mean anything. His own rather clumsy alterations to the search engine, which could scan the facial features of a photo and reduce it to numbers and geometry had its flaws. It was also entirely illegal for him to have created software like this, and he knew he ought to keep it from Victoria for a while. Perhaps he'd tell her sometime next year—assuming they all still knew one another then.

It was on his mind a lot, actually. He enjoyed having Beth and Victoria around, but he had to wonder how long this hastily slapped-together group of nine would last. They seemed to have been brought together by necessity, which he didn't mind, per se. It was just odd for him to go from traveling solely with Kaylee for virtually all his life to suddenly expanding his number of companions by seven.

Edith took a while to write back to his last message. When she finally did, it was very short.

_We all could these days. — E_

It was an ambiguous reply, and Gav hadn't known what else to write after that. After his two weeks of solitary confinement, Gav was ready to get out into the sun again. Kaylee gaped at him as he emerged into the Center's lobby, hamming it up and performing a large double-take.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, ruffling her hair and earning himself a punch in the ribs. "I emerge."

"Do you know how _annoying _it is when someone messes up your ponytail?" Kaylee demanded, reaching up and messing up his. "It takes forever to get it right again!"

"For you, maybe," Gav said, taking out his hair tie and fixing his. "You being a female and all."

Victoria nodded to him from a corner table, and he headed over to sit with her. They exchanged the usual "how goes the trust game?" small talk, and Gav reported that there was no news as of yet.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're taking a break. I've got a list of potential leads, but now that you're actually out and about…" she grinned. "I think I might have to withhold them from you."

"You, ma'am, are cruel indeed," Gav joked.

Kaylee came over to Gav and Victoria, leaning over onto the back of one of the chairs.

"Gav, I was thinking… if this girl gives us the green light, we'll be passing through Pewter to get to the forest."

Gav paused. "Yeah," he said. "I've thought about that, too."

"Do you think it'd be, y'know… possible to visit Armstrong?"

"Thought about that, too," Gav said, his face growing serious. "I think it should be alright, so long as we don't stay long."

Kaylee seemed to be struggling to reign in her excitement. "Alright, of course," she said, not quite keeping the smile off her face as she backed away from the table. "Well, I'll leave you two alone," she finished, winking and jogging out the Center doors. Gav raised an eyebrow.

Victoria sighed, shaking her head. "They've been doing that a lot lately, haven't they?"

"Mmm," Gav agreed. He wasn't quite sure what else to say to that, so he didn't say anything. The waiter came over and asked if they wanted to order then, and since they weren't hungry they decided to head out back and surrender the table to someone else.

Jason and Gina were there, in the middle of a battle. They didn't seem to notice they had company, so Victoria and Gav grabbed seats on a bench and watched.

"So not fair!" Jason complained as Gina swapped her Pidgey for Charmander. "Type advantage!"

"Oh come on," Gina said, laughing at him. Charmander whipped its tail back and forth and Bulbasaur leaned down, stretching out its legs. "You really want me to go easy on you?"

"Well, when you put it like _that… _Vine Whip!"

Victoria straightened up next to Gav, and he realized that she didn't have a Bulbasuar in her arsenal of plant Pokemon. Bulbasaur released its vines and aimed two cracking blows at Charmander, who dodged the first one but took the second across the cheek. It snarled at Bulbasaur, who made a snorting sound back.

"Scratch, Charmander!" Gina said. Charmander was ready, and leapt forward to rake its small claws against Bulbasaur's side.

Victoria leaned back in the bench seat again, and Gav glanced at the side of her face. He wasn't sure, but he thought maybe she was a little envious of Jason's Bulbasaur. "You and Beth never became Initiates because you dislike the process?" he asked.

"Yep," she replied. "Didn't want to be a leeching drain on society. I would have picked a Bulbasaur, though, if that's what you're getting to."

"I was," he agreed. "I think maybe your prejudice against Initiates is a little harsh, though."

She turned to him as Charmander let out a small burst of ember flames and Jason shouted "yowch!" She didn't say anything, but raised one red eyebrow at him.

"It's not like these kids intend to be 'leeching drains on society,' as you say. Though I do agree that the system ought to be overhauled and redesigned."

"Well, yes. The apathy is troublesome though. I'll bet you neither one of these two realizes where they get their money from, or even cares to find out."

"Fair enough," Gav said, turning to the battle in time to see Bulbasaur spew Sleep Powder all over Charmander as Gina shouted "No! Aw, _man_!"

"Haha!" Jason shouted. "Behold the wonder of my status effects! What'cha gonna do now?" he stood with his hands on his hips and Gina grumbled venomously to herself as she dug a spray bottle out of her bag.

While she was spraying the equivalent of Pokemon smelling salts on Charmander, Gina glanced over at the bench and smiled. "Hey guys," she said. "Didn't see you."

"Oh," Jason said, also waving. "I see you have arrived just in time to witness my awe-inspiring victory."

"Fat chance," Gina said, as Charmander made a _snuff _sound and sat up groggily. "You good?" she asked him, and he grumbled and snorted smoke. "Okay!"

Gav and Victoria decided to leave them to it and headed back inside. They spotted Orion heading into Zahlia's room, a tray of food in hand, and Blake at one of the Center's computers. Gav heaved a sigh at that sight, knowing he should return to his own "job."

"Still going to withhold information from me?" he asked.

"You bet," Victoria said. There was a momentary pause, and she bit her lip as a slight frown came to her face. "You, uh, really shouldn't work so hard. Let's go do something else for a while. I mean, you've been in there for… what, two weeks?"

"More or less," Gav said, rubbing his head. "I know it's pretty lame, but, I just feel like we're close to getting this contact to hear us out. It could be a big deal if she actually can help us, even a little."

Victoria nodded and took a few steps back. "Right enough. I guess maybe I'll let you in on my leads later." She smiled deviously. "Maybe."

Gav laughed and watched her leave. It was only after she exited through the front doors of the Center that he made the connection in his head and realized she had been trying to invite him out to have fun with her, and he'd pulled his workaholic loser card on her and refused. Groaning and face palming in the middle of the lobby, Gav stood there for a bit.

Blake spoke up from the computer. "Harsh, man."

Embarrassed, Gav didn't say anything and headed over to his room. There was nothing on the screen and Gav shook his head, feeling like an idiot. Just when he was ready to shut down the PDA and go off to find Victoria, a message popped up.

_Alright. My Long and Lat is 21.8, -160.2. I'll warn you, I've got a ton of Pokemon, and some of them have serious behavioral and emotional issues. I recommend you bring no trouble with you when you come to visit. — E_

* * *

In spite of the whole Rocket business, Gav wasn't used to uprooting and traveling this much in such a short amount of time. Normally he and Kaylee would set up shop in a camp site or a town for at least a few months, since he liked to be efficient with their research and conduct multiple investigations in the same area. On the bright side, he was learning how to pack and unpack at lightning speed.

Kaylee was happy, too, which was always a bonus. She was nomadic by nature, it seemed, and enjoyed the constant moving and adventuring a great deal. She was much tanner now, and that was saying something since their family was naturally dark complected to begin with. There was a spring in her step and she was really on it with her jokes and impressions, particularly wounding Gina and Beth from overdose of laughter.

"He really did! He tried to tag Geodude," Kaylee said. "Oh, you should have seen this guy's face." She did an imitation and Gina stumbled on a rock. Gav inwardly thought: _Kaylee uses Funny Face! It's super effective! Gina's attack missed!_

Beth was giggling as well, even though she must have heard this story a number of times by now. "Did I get to tell you about the Eternal Metapod, Gina?"

"Oh don't you dare!" Victoria shouted.

Gav's small smile stayed firmly on his face as they walked through the grass of Route 3. They'd made wonderful progress through Mt. Moon after catching the train to Cerulean, and he thought he knew why. With the combination of the Fremont brothers wanting to get as far away from Cerulean as possible, and the added creep-factor of Mt. Moon ever since the scuffle that had taken place within, they did not stop for sightseeing to put it lightly. Orion in particular seemed bothered by the cave, though when Gav pointed this out the older Fremont insisted it wasn't true. Gav was slightly worried about Orion, but decided to drop it. He did assure the group at large that nothing was likely to bother them with Onix still serving as Zahlia's taxi for most of the journey.

Kaylee and Beth were taking turns narrating the story of the Eternal Metapod, and Victoria had pulled ahead to avoid having to hear it. Gav chuckled and shook his head as Gina struggled not to laugh, apparently fearing retribution from Victoria. Gav knew that Gina had picked up on Victoria's lack of respect for Initiates, even if Jason hadn't yet. It made him feel a little bad for the kids; in spite of agreeing with Victoria's disdain for the Initiation _process_, he couldn't find it in himself to dislike the actual Initiates.

"She brought him out recently, though. Hey Vee!" Beth called, and Victoria ignored her. "Why don't you bring Metapod out for a bit?"

Victoria snorted and stopped walking in order to let the convoy catch up. When Onix snaked past she tossed a Pokeball up on top of it, and Metapod deployed. It sat quite happily on top of Onix and Gav saw his enormous Pokemon turn its head around slowly to glance at the green Bug-type that was its new passenger.

Kaylee grinned and said, "awright! How ya doing?" to Metapod, who looked at her warily with one sleepy eye. Gav smiled as Kaylee began to narrate what Metapod might be saying. More laughter sounded from around him, and Gav decided he very much liked the sound.

He knew a big reason Kaylee was so buoyant was the fact that they were in close proximity to Pewter. They hadn't been home in over a year, and Gav felt a stab of guilt for that.

Sure enough: "Jerry's great, you fought him, right guys?" Kaylee asked Gina and Jason.

Gina and Jason exchanged a confused look. "Jerry?" Gina asked.

"Jerry Armstrong."

"Oh," Gina said, her eyes widening just a hair. "Oh, yeah." This confused Gav until Jason grinned and elbowed Gina.

"Don't worry. She's experiencing some Gym battle PTSD. We both had a really tough time with Armstrong."

"He's tough, that's for sure," Gav added. "I hope he's renovated the Gym, a little…"

"Not really," Orion said, speaking up for the first time in hours. "I had to wonder if it was up to code to be honest."

"Aw, man," Gav said, sighing. "That's unfortunate to hear." He took a glance at Orion and frowned again; the boy was looking pale and uncomfortable. Gav hoped he wasn't coming down with something.

It wasn't long before the beloved, heart-wrenching sight of his home town blew everything else out of the water, though. Gav didn't think someone could be in love with a place the way they loved a person or a Pokemon, but that idea was destroyed completely at the feeling that rose in his chest when he saw the smooth grays and soft silvers of the city of his birth. Kaylee's face split into the most enormous grin he had seen on her in months. She looked at Gav and opened her mouth, and he knew what she was going to say before she could get the words out.

"Yes, we are eating at The Slab."

"_Alright!"_

* * *

Gav could not remember anything ever tasting so good in his life. He was struck with the sudden idea that there might be vegetarians in their midsts, but luckily that was not the case and everyone was able to eat what The Slab had to offer. Randy, the aging fry cook, had not been able to believe his eyes when Gav and Kaylee pushed in through the doors. The things he had said to them had caused Gav's throat to contract painfully as he struggled to keep his emotions in check: "_You look just like your father, look at you, all gown up! And Kaylee, my goodness, you're a lady already. They'd be so proud, and Brock too. On the house, kids, of course you don't pay here."_

He had needed to excuse himself to the restroom on the pretense of washing his hands, and had sat in front of the mirror, leaning against the sink, getting a hold of himself. He had stared into his face, trying to see his father's brown eyes and sharp jawline, but he supposed he couldn't see the resemblance just yet. He truly hoped Randy wouldn't bust out any more sentimentality on him, as much as it sincerely touched him. He just didn't want his composure to dissolve completely mid-burger.

After an incredible meal where everyone ate too much, Kaylee had reunited her Growlithe pups with their Arcanine mother and siblings. Gav definitely noticed that Kaylee's Growlithe looked different than the other two; Kaylee's were slightly bigger and a bit tougher looking, but the family enjoyed catching up and rolling around with one another. Kaylee let them stay there for the day while she and Gav headed up to the Gym, and the others branched off to relax at other areas in town.

Gav knew they couldn't stay long, especially with Zahlia, Blake, and the Fremont brothers all trying to keep out of the public eye for the most part. Still, he felt a rush of feeling when he and Kaylee pushed the doors of the Gym open, flooding the dark interior with light. The memories hit Gav hard, and he stood there, letting them wash over him.

When he had been four Ando had taken him here. Gav was a silent spectator up on the stands, hanging near the edge and watching as Ando trained Onix. He couldn't remember details of his father's expressions, or the sound of his voice, which saddened him intensely. He did remember that he would always warn Gav away from the edge when he got too close. Gav would back up obediently only to scoot forward again and continue watching as the dust flew and the sound of Onix's screech attack tore through the building, rattling the windows.

When Kaylee had been born, Gav had scarcely known what to do with himself. He was always so afraid of dropping her, and stared at her with what his mother called a shell-shocked look when he was given his baby sister to hold.

Kaylee and he had agreed; they would not return to their childhood home until their project was done. It was a reward for themselves, to be enjoyed after they assured justice for their parents' and Brock's deaths. Gav knew their modest little home was so close, just on the other side of a slight hill, on the way to the museum. It was more tempting now than ever.

"Gav and Kaylee Harrison, is that really you?" a gruff voice called from the rickety stairwell across the way. Gav's smile must have given him away; even though he couldn't see Jerry Armstrong in this light, he knew the older man's eyes were incredibly sharp. "My God, it is. Stay right there, I'll be right down."

A moment later Armstrong made his way across the Gym grounds to them, holding his arms out. Gav and Kaylee crossed to him and gave him a big group hug. He messed up their hair, much to Kaylee's protest, and asked them the usual questions about what they'd caught and what level their Pokemon were. Gav let out Onix, Geodude and his new addition, Cubone. Kaylee explained that the two Growlithe were reuniting with their family, and Armstrong nodded as he picked up Cubone in one enormous hand.

"Nice, very nice," he said, smiling a crinkle-eyed smile at them from behind his considerable beard. "What brings you back to Pewter? Not that I'm complainin'."

"We're on our way to Viridian," Gav said, not wanting to mention that they were going to stop in the middle of the forest. Armstrong didn't know about their project, and he wanted to keep it that way. The fewer people from their past knew about what they were doing, the better. Gav figured Armstrong wouldn't approve, anyway. He had seen firsthand the way Gav shut himself off from the world, pouring himself into research after Brock's death. He had been the one to snap Gav out of it, remind him that his sister needed him and he still had a life to live. From then on Gav had done his best to keep the big picture in sight, in spite of his driving need to find justice. Kaylee was his family, and if he ever did wrong by her, he would not only be failing himself, but his parents and Brock as well.

He owed so much to the man before him, and Gav impulsively gave him another hug. "How's business?" he asked, accepting Cubone from Armstrong as he handed him back.

"Making life miserable for all the Charmander-starters, as usual," Armstrong said, chuckling.

"Hah," Kaylee said, grinning. "Just you wait, I'll show you what fire types can do."

"Is that a challenge, young lady?"

"You bet!" Kaylee exclaimed, running towards the door. Gav laughed and watched her dash off into the afternoon heat.

"Your sister, she's the same as ever, huh?"

"Yeah," Gav said, making his way to the rickety ladder so he could watch from his favorite spot high above the arena. "It's pretty great."

As Gav watched the fire coursing through the Gym, and listened to the familiar sound of Screech echo through the building, he could not help feeling incredibly happy that they had come.


	32. Chapter 32 Gina

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 32

Gina Ikeda

The group was ready to leave Pewter the following morning, and Gina had to say it was not a moment too soon. They had all been caught up in the City, and grateful for the brief break in their long journey, and by the time they realized it was sundown, it was too late to head off into the forest. Gina, Victoria, Beth and the Harrison siblings had signed up for five separate rooms, and had shuffled Zahlia, Blake, Orion and Jason into those rooms secretly. Beth ran interference with the receptionist as everyone had snuck off to the Pokemon Center's hallway.

Gina had the wonderful privilege of sharing a room with Jason, who tossed and turned and talked in his sleep. She somehow hadn't noticed this when they had camped out in the open, in Viridian City and Mt. Moon, but in the closed space she heard every bump and every grumble and was up for most of the night trying to convince herself that strangling her friend was not nice. Jason could not understand why she was in such a foul mood the next morning.

The group snuck breakfast in to the others, ate quickly, and crept out of the Center in pairs. The receptionist, bless her, was oblivious as ever, and didn't seem to realize anything was amiss. Gina wondered if people doubled-up in rooms like this a lot and the woman simply thought nothing of it anymore.

They bid a fond farewell to Pewter, and Gina definitely noticed that Gav and Kaylee seemed disheartened and quiet as they travelled. She tried to think of a way to cheer them up and eventually decided to ask Kaylee to retell the story of Growlithe's Cone of Shame episode after it came down with fleas. Kaylee's retelling had been somewhat dispassionate at first, but at the encouragement of her audience she became her normal animated self soon enough. That seemed to cheer up Gav, and the group felt less morose as they stopped to make lunch.

"We're getting close," Gav reasoned as he consulted his GPS. "I think we can make it in another hour or so after this."

"Good," Jason said. "Can't wait to get to a place where I don't have to sneak into bed. Well, assuming she lets us stay. Also assuming she's not some crazy Pokemon lady out in the woods all alone with a porch full of Meowths. Sort of freaky if you ask me."

"Aw, you haven't even met her yet!" Beth insisted. "I'm sure she's fine. She has a breeding ground for abandoned Pokemon, for Pete's sake. How bad can she be?"

Gina heard a twig snap somewhere behind her, and glanced back to stare off into the woods. No one else seemed to have heard it, though, so she turned back to the talk. Kaylee stoked the fire and Gav compiled bare-bone chicken sandwiches on pita bread.

"Yeah, well, just sayin'. I hope she's normal."

"I like Normal," Orion said. After a brief pause, half of their number picked up on the joke and groaned. "Bad pun, bad pun, I know!" he said, dodging a stick Jason threw at him.

"Stone him for his insolence!" Jason cried.

"Way to scare away all the Pokemon, Gina and company."

Gina choked on water and turned around to stare wide-eyed at the previously empty patch of forest behind her. It now held one of her least favorite people in the world, and before she could stop herself she had blurted out "_HOW?_"

Amaris somehow looked taller in the month or so that Gina hadn't seen him. He was tanner too, and his freckles were starting to multiply a bit. His rust-colored hair and teal eyes were the same, though, and apparently his attitude still needed adjusting.

"What the heck are you doing here?" Gina demanded, not sure what else to say.

"I could ask the same of you," he said. "I've just been to Pallet. Dropped something off to Uncle Drake and got a Pokemon from him. I see you've… picked up some extra people."

Gina cast a glance over to her friends, and saw that their expressions were varying degrees of surprise and dislike. Victoria had a perfectly haughty, distrusting look on her face, and Gav seemed to be struggling to read Amaris' mind. Jason was scowling and Orion was tilting his head to the side, like he was trying to place his face from somewhere before.

"Yeah, well," Gina said. She tried to think of something else but drew a complete blank. Amaris snorted.

"Still a great conversationalist, I see. Well, hate to interrupt your pow-wow, but I could use a rematch. Come." Amaris headed off to a clear patch a little ways away, but still very much in sight, and Gina's mouth fell open. She could not believe the presumptuous way he bossed her around, and she was sorely tempted to refuse him this battle and turn back to the fire.

She couldn't quite do it, though, as much as she wanted to. She groaned to herself and picked up her Pokemon belt, hesitating as she looked down at it.

"Go whoop him, Gina!" Jason said. "I'll save you a plate."

She smiled at her friend and sighed. "Thanks," she said, steeling herself for the upcoming fight as she snapped her belt around her waist.

"Don't have all day!" Amaris called.

"Hold your frickin' horses!" she snapped back, tromping through the grass and bushes to get to the little arena area he had found. She could feel the eyes of the others on her back and knew that most, if not all of them would be watching this battle. The performance anxiety was intense.

Amaris' smug smile was firmly in place, and she saw that he had let out his Abra to watch the proceedings again. It perched on a branch above Amaris' head. Gina couldn't be sure, but she thought perhaps it looked a little bigger and a little less sleepy.

"Ladies firs—" Amaris began.

"Don't you dare."

"If you insist," Amaris said, pulling a Pokeball off his belt just as Gina did. "I really don't see why you don't just take the turn, though."

They both let out their firsts, and Gina was not surprised at all to see Squirtle. That was why she had chosen Nidoran.

"Water Gun," Amaris said calmly, and Gina leapt aside just in time. She had learned from the last battle.

Nidoran rolled aside as well, managing to avoid most of the pressure from the water, It still had been hit on the ear though, and shook its head, rubbing the irritated skin with its paw. Gina ordered Double Kick, and Squirtle took the hit squarely to the belly. It actually seemed mad for once instead of smug and calm like its trainer, and executed Tackle with great force. Nidoran turned and hit it with barbs, but still took damage from the attack. Squirtle wasn't poisoned, but it was looking worn.

"Return," Amaris said, recalling his Pokemon. Gina waited uncertainly for his next choice and groaned when she saw the red outline of his Pidgey. When the outline kept on growing, though, her face took on a brief look of horror for one second before she got control of herself. Correction: his Pidgeotto.

Gina looked at Nidoran, who seemed healthy but not quite up for something like this. Gina recalled her and sent out Charmander instead. She called to him, "get ready," and both of them braced themselves for one of Pidegotto's speciality Gusts.

Instead, Amaris swapped again. Gina ground her teeth together as Squirtle appeared again, and Charmander made a sound that seemed very much like a bark.

"I'm sorry," Gina said, recalling Charmander. Or, she attempted to recall him, anyway. He rolled out of the way of the aiming laser two times before she successfully got him back, and she was bright red in the face as Amaris laughed at this display.

"Still? Gina, what the heck are you doing wrong? I know fire types are tough to handle, but this one is just… wow."

"You shut up," Gina said, heat rising in her body as she defended her Pokemon. "He's twice the fighter your Squirtle is."

"Then why won't you let him fight?"

"You only use Squirtle against him because you know the type advantage is the only thing that gives you an edge," Gina said. "No one else in your team can beat him." She sent out Pidgey against Squirtle, and saw with some satisfaction that Amaris seemed to have a sour expression on his face. Perhaps she had touched a nerve. When Amaris recalled Squirtle and sent out Pidgeotto again, though, Gina had had enough.

"Okay, this is ridiculous. We're never going to have a battle at this rate."

Amaris thought about it. "You're right," he said, recalling Pidgeotto. Gina was mulling over how weird it sounded to hear those two words from Amaris, but was more confused about what was going on now. Amaris took his Pokeballs off his belt and shuffled them in his hands. "Do the same," he ordered.

"What's all this?" she asked, returning Pidgey nevertheless.

"We're going to have a one-on-one battle. First one we sent out is the one to fight. Fair enough?" he asked, a faint sneer in his voice.

"Fair," Gina spat, also shuffling her Pokeballs awkwardly in her hands. She tried not to drop them and selected one just as Amaris did. They took a moment to attach the others to their belts, and enlarged the ones they had selected.

"Ready?"

"Just do it," Gina said, hoping desperately that she had not selected Magikarp.

Flashes of red followed their words, and Pidgey emerged from its Pokeball, looking very confused. A moment later a small brown puppy appeared on Amaris' side of the field, and Gina frowned at it.

"An Eevee?" she asked. "Is that from your Uncle?"

"Yes," he said curtly. "Now, enough talk. Sand Attack!" he ordered.

Gina scowled as she blocked her eyes from the haze of dust and sand. That was going to be her first move, but she didn't want to use it now that he had. When the attack subsided, she coughed though the haze and shouted, "Gust!"

Pidgey blew most of the dust away, but didn't do much damage to Eevee at all. Eevee executed Amaris' next command of Tackle, actually leaping an impressive distance into the air and striking Pidgey. Pidgey tumbled out of the air towards Gina, and Gina prepared to catch it. Pidgey righted itself at the last moment, however, and when Gina told it to tackle, Pidgey added liberal amounts of claw and beak to the assault. Eevee yipped, and went to Bite, but Pidgey flew out of the way.

"Quick Attack!" Gina shouted, watching with great satisfaction as Pidgey landed the attack on Eevee so fast that her eyes couldn't quite follow. Eevee yelped again, and this time its Bite attack landed square. Pidgey squawked in pain, and the second of flinching hesitation before its Gust attack allowed Eevee to brace for it properly.

"Tackle again," Amaris said, and Pidgey barely managed to dodge out of the way. Gina was sure Pidgey was in critical health; she'd left her Dex on the ground by the others, but she was starting to be able to tell without it.

"Just a bit more, Pidge! Quick Attack!"

Pidgey hit Eevee directly in the face with its final Quick Attack, and Eevee skidded across the forest floor, tumbling head over heels and struggling to stand. Amaris stared down at it impassively, quietly evaluating. In the meantime Pidgey careened to the ground, panting, apparently too tired to stay in the air any longer. A moment later Eevee collapsed to one side and lay there, staring bleakly over at Gina and her Pokemon. Amaris looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Alright then, draw. Sound fair?"

"Yes," Gina said, controlling her face the best she could. Inside she wanted to scream, punch the air, and throw a party. For the very first time, Amaris had not defeated her.

"Return," Amaris said, taking Eevee back, and Abra after. "Well, later," he said, heading abruptly off through the forest in the direction of Pewter. His comings and goings were always so sudden, and this one left Gina standing and blinking for a second until Jason pounded her on the back from behind.

"You did it! Sort of. Mostly! Eevee was so done before Pidgey, that was a win! I don't care what he said about his mamby-pamby 'draw.'"

Gina turned and grinned at Jason. "Thanks… that means a lot to me. You didn't eat my food, right?"

"Not yet," he said. "But you'd better hurry up!"

* * *

A little while later they were packed up again and on their way. Gav was in the lead, glancing down at his GPS every so often and leading them through some pretty intense patches of thick forest. Gina was cleaning out her text message inbox, knowing it would get full sooner or later and she'd have to make space. Pretty soon she would have to devote all her time to concentrating on walking, but for now it was okay.

She came across the text that said simply, "Thanks," from Professor Drake, and stared at it for a few moments. She wondered what Amaris had been delivering to him, and suddenly realized that she know knew what the rocks in the photo had been. After a moment of hesitation, Gina hung back a bit farther from the group and dialed him up.

For once, Professor Drake answered. He looked very surprised to see her face on the camera-phone.

"Gina! I thought you'd be Amaris." Gina took a second to be horrified at that thought. "How are you?"

"Hi Professor," Gina said, smiling at his crooked tie and messed up hair. He looked like he'd just been tinkering with something. "I just thought I'd call and tell you, if you needed to know what the rocks are in the photo, they're fossils."

She figured he'd say something like "of course I know!" or "thanks Gina." When he just stared at her, a slight frown growing on his face, Gina paused in her walk altogether. The others pushed on, not hearing her stop due to the crashing footfalls they were making in the underbrush.

"Something… wrong?" Gina asked, starting to walk again, not wanting to be separated.

"No, nothing. Just… how did you...?"

"Just, uh, looked it up. I was real curious," Gina lied. She felt a pang of guilt that only increased when the professor said, "I always knew you were a bright girl." She was about to make up an excuse and hang up, but Professor Drake put up a hand to stop her.

"Listen, Gina, about what you saw at Mt. Moon. No one is quite sure what happened there, but an investigation is underway. I know you're a good trainer, and you'll stay out of danger… but just, try not to get yourself into any strange situations anymore, alright?"

Gina was pretty sure there was no other way in the world Professor Drake could make her feel worse. She swallowed once, trying to look offhand and confident, and said, "Oh, yeah, of course." There was an awkward pause. "Say hi to Mom for me?"

"Sure thing," Professor Drake said. "Take care, Gina. I'll see you next time you visit Pallet."

Gina smiled, nodded, and hung up, feeling pretty lousy. She jogged to catch up with the others and almost tripped on a root, after which she swore off jogging in the forest. Luckily she did not have long to wallow in her guilt; Gav abruptly stopped and said, "We're here."

At first Gina thought his GPS was acting up. From her angle all she could see were thick trees and choking patches of brush. As the others filed forward, though, she began to see catches of grass from between their legs and blue sky from around their heads. She was the last one through, and when she stepped through the trees she had to shake her head out to make sure she was really seeing what she was seeing.

It had been invisible from a few feet back, but there was a nice little patch of open, grassy area that stretched into her line of sight. A very small pond was off to the right, and a small water wheel stirred up the liquid, creating ripples across the surface. A cottage was to the left of the pond, and a fenced off area on the other side held a few roaming Pokemon from what Gina could see. It looked like a Nidoran or two were there, as well as a Mankey. She only had a few moments to study it when the door flew open and a girl stepped out into the light, a very wary expression on her face and an arsenal of Pokemon behind her.

Gina stared open-mouthed again. The name Edith had been enormously misleading. Gina had been expecting an old woman, but this girl was only perhaps a little older than herself. She had wavy black hair and very dark skin, but she was dressed like no one Gina had ever met before. Her shawl looked like other pieces of fabric had gotten drunk and vomited it up, and she was wearing something that looked like a pair of black overalls that turned abruptly into a dress at the waist. It only had one strap, and under it she wore a white billowy button-up shirt that reminded Gina of pirates. The many bracelets she wore all up her arms didn't really help this image much.

Bizarrely, Gina instantly decided she was okay. Clearly this girl did not agree in her assessment of their party. A Poliwhirl, Ivysaur, Drowzee and Vulpix stared the rest of them down, and Gina felt herself reaching for Charmander's Pokeball. After a very, very long and tense pause, Gav ventured forward a few steps.

"We cool?" he asked, raising his hands.

There was a pause, and the girl finally nodded. "Yeah, we're cool." She said something soft to the Pokemon, and they turned around quite calmly and headed back into the house.

"Well," she said, looking a bit awkward now. "Come in."

They followed her in through the front door, and Gina's mouth fell open yet again. Her home was totally insane. Little post-it notes covered the entirety of one wall, and they looked to be color-coded. The handwriting on them was insanely small. Her couch was so patched and re-patched it looked like it was a hundred years old, and she had no fewer than nine tiny rugs on the floor instead of one large one. There were a bunch of little Pokemon figurines all over the place, perched on spotless shelves, lining the fireplace, peering out from around lamps. It didn't take Gina long to realize all 150 were here; and they were in numerical order. As much as she tried not to wear a wide-eyed, alarmed expression on her face, she was sure she was failing.

Gina turned to Jason, expecting to exchange a surprised glance with him, but he seemed more preoccupied with staring at their strange new hostess. She couldn't blame him; she certainly made an interesting impact on the eye. Gina wondered if she lived here alone.

The girl moved aside to let them enter better. Jason was still in the doorway, and made a big show of kicking the dirt off his boots. Gina felt embarrassed that she hadn't cleaned her own sneakers as well, then wondered why Jason was trying so hard. Maybe he didn't want this girl to flip out on them. It did look like she kept a very organized house. When the girl went to get them tea, Jason rushed over to be of assistance. Gina couldn't quite wrap her mind around it. Helpful Jason did not compute.

"Thanks," the girl said to Jason, glancing down as if embarrassed. "I'm sorry I was so… uh, yeah, out there."

"Gotta be careful, I understand that well enough," Gav said.

"I'm Edith," the girl said. "This is… my place and, yep. This is my place," she finished. Gina smiled; that sounded like something she herself would leave on someone's answering machine in a moment of uncertainty.

Edith set out some teacups for them, and Gina noticed with a frown that she tapped the cup down on the saucer twice before moving on to the next one. Edith seemed to notice that the others were watching this, and she cleared her throat.

"OCD," Edith said. "The actual, diagnosable kind. Not too severe, though." She turned abruptly to Jason, who was still hovering, and said, "Are you Gav?"

Jason looked a bit flabbergasted to be addressed direct;y. He coughed quickly and put out his hand. "No, I'm Jason Fremont. Nice to meet you."

She shook his hand and smiled. "I've heard of you," she said, and Jason turned a very subtle shade of pink. Gina finally got it, and struggled not to burst out laughing. The idea of the revenge Orion would get to extract on his brother now tickled her.

"I'm Gav," Gav said, standing up to also shake her hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"Tea?" she asked the table, and everyone agreed to some. Gina had a feeling it was mostly because of all the double-tap trouble Edith had gone through to set the table for them. Once everyone was taken care of, Edith stood. "Gav, would you mind if we talk in the other room, briefly?"

"Of course not," Gav said, standing and following her out. Poliwhirl took his place at the table at once, staring out at the group. The atmosphere felt somewhat policed under his swirly blue presence.

"I wonder what they're talking about?" Beth wondered aloud.

"Probably creative ways to kill us," Blake said morosely.

"That was what _I _was going to say!" Kaylee said, grinning at Blake. Blake raised an eyebrow at her and Kaylee's smile faded from her face. "Alright then," she said, grumbling and going back to her tea, her attempt at bizarre bonding backfiring.

"Well," Orion finally said. "She seems… nice enough."

"Yeah," Jason said, not managing to say much else. Gina drank tea to hide her smile.

"We'll see," Victoria said.


	33. Chapter 33 Orion

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 33

Orion Fremont

Orion woke up from a nightmare drenched in sweat, his heart racing. As soon as he sat up had had no idea what the dream had been about, and he also had no idea where he was. It took him a while to remember the cottage, Edith, and the Viridian Forest, and when it finally returned to him he dropped his head into his hands and let out a shaky breath.

It had been about a week since Edith conceded to let them use this cottage as a safe meeting place. That agreement had taken a full week to reach consensus, and in the meantime they had camped out in her front yard. Orion had grown used to hearing the clicks and clatters of her seven deadbolts every night. He could still hear them engaging even after he and the others had moved indoors.

Orion had been feeling strange ever since they had left Saffron and headed out towards this place. The feeling had seemed to increase with every step, and he couldn't tell if it was an ailment of the mind or of the body. Either way it woke him in cold sweats and kept him up at weird hours. His appetite was affected, but he tried not to let this show and still ate as much as he normally did just to keep up his strength.

Edith definitely had a sixth sense for health, though. She figured out he was under the weather the moment she had a bit of alone time with him, and insisted he drink a strange herbal tea concoction at night. Orion glanced to his bedside table; the tea was still there. He'd forgotten to drink it when he went to bed. He couldn't remember, but he figured he must have fallen asleep right away. He drank it now, and it was thick and cold.

After a few moments of doing nothing, he let out Rattata and Meowth. His two friends peered up at him and yawned and stretched. Orion felt bad for waking them.

"Sorry, guys," he said, giving them a strained smile. "Ole 'Rye is losing it."

Rattata hopped up on his nightstand and sniffed the empty cup of tea, and Meowth jumped up onto his bed and curled up on his lap, kneading his stomach a bit painfully. Orion scratched Meowth behind the ears and leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes. Unnamed, bright images flashed behind his eyelids though, and he opened them again. Meowth was looking up at him questioningly.

"I don't think I'm gonna get much more sleep tonight," Orion reasoned to them in a whisper. "Want to go out and train?"

Meowth yawned and jumped off him to head for the door, and Rattata scurried down to follow suit. Orion took this as an affirmative and grabbed their Pokeballs as he, too, got out of bed and walked to the door. He opened it for them and was about to follow them out when his eyes trailed back to his bag, where Clefairy's Pokeball was. He hesitated for a very long time, only realizing this when Meowth gave a rather loud "_Mee-yoww_," from the front door. Making up his mind in an instant, Orion grabbed Clefairy's Pokeball and headed out into the chilly dark-before-the-dawn with his Pokemon.

* * *

Predictably, Orion was exhausted and dead on his feet during their meeting the following day. If anyone noticed this, though, they didn't mention it. It was sort of a well-established fact that Orion was under the weather, and no one expected him to speak up much until he was better. Orion felt grateful for this and settled down to simply listen to the speculation and planning going on around him.

"I don't think it's out of the question, no," Gav said. Orion hadn't picked up what he was talking about and frowned slightly, vowing to pay a little more attention. "Jason and Gina should be able to continue their Master journies."

"Not so sure if that's smart," Victoria said. "If they're careful, and if Jason carries a fake ID, I'll feel better about it."

"I'd like a fake ID," Jason commented, just to put his two cents in. Orion smiled wanly.

"Well, okay," Gav said, clapping. "We can return to that later. Moving on for now…"

Orion let his eyes slip shut for just a second. When he opened them he was still in the same position, but the conversation had changed completely. He frowned and wondered how he had managed to nod off without falling forward. That took skill.

"Think about it," Victoria was saying. "Doesn't it strike you as weird?"

"I though the same thing," Gav admitted. "But we don't know what it means."

Orion frowned, wishing he hadn't traded sleep for an early morning training session. He hoped someone would repeat what was going on.

"Three… yeah, that's kind of a lot," Gina said, nibbling on her lip. "It's a really weird coincidence, or something is tying this stuff together."

"I'm sorry," Orion said, unable to bear the curiosity now that he was awake again. "I think I missed this part."

Victoria nodded. "Sure. I was pointing out that Gav and Kaylee have ties to the Pewter Gym, Zahlia and Blake have ties to the Fuchsia Gym, and you and Jason—"

"—Vermillion Gym," Orion finished, his frown deepening. "Yeah. That is… that is very odd."

"Well, we all agree about that," Victoria said, sighing. "We just are stumped as to what this correlation means, if anything."

"There are differences, of course," Zahlia pointed out. "My brother, as far as I know, isn't affiliated with the Gym. He's just a member of my family. Dad's the one in the policy-making field, and I've had no trouble or word from him. Then there's Nathan Fremont's strange behavior, but that doesn't tie in with the Harrisons, who didn't have any suspicious habits as far as Gav and Kaylee can tell."

Orion was seized by intense exhaustion and stood. "I'm really sorry guys, but I think I'll have to turn in for the night. I'm pretty tired."

"Kick that bug," Jason said to him. "Night bro."

Orion headed off to his room, feeling a slight sense of dizziness as he made his way down the hall. He paused when the hallway stretched out endlessly before him and shook his head. This was not normal, he decided. A soft pattering of footsteps behind him barely reached his ears in time for him to turn and face the newcomer.

Kaylee looked a little nervous to be addressing him. Orion wondered if he really looked that bad. "Just… wanted to make sure you got to your room okay," she explained. "You alright?"

"I, yeah," he said, offering her his best impression of a reassuring smile. "Thanks for checking up on me. I'm good. Just… taking a break."

"A break from walking down the hallway?" Kaylee asked, nibbling her lip with her teeth. "That doesn't sound very okay to me."

Orion had to admit, she was right. "Okay. Let's walk to my door, then you can report back to the others that I survived my treacherous trek."

"Okay," Kaylee said, smiling in a very pleased way. Orion kept one hand on the wall on the way down to his room and tried to convince his eyes that the hallway had not magically stretched itself. It was the exact same length it had always been. He overshot his room and Kaylee's hand reached out to direct him to the proper door. He was a little surprised.

"Good thing you came with me," he joked. "I'd probably have walked out through the backdoor and made it all the way to Viridian City."

Kaylee laughed softly at that, not her usual burst of loud laughter. Orion was grateful for that; his head was starting to pound. "Call if you need anything," she said, taking a few steps back.

"Will do," he said, making his way over to the bed and sitting down. He didn't remember her closing the door and leaving, and he didn't remember falling asleep.

* * *

The next thing he remembered was sitting around the breakfast table eating with the others. He assumed it was the following morning. Jason looked at him with concern when Orion suddenly stopped eating and stared ahead with an expression of steadily growing alarm.

"You… okay?"

"I have no idea how I got here," Orion said, sounding strangely calm.

Jason and Gina exchanged a look. "_Woooo_," Jason said, making ghostly motions with his hands in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Someone's drugged up."

"Yeah," Gina said, grinning over at Edith, but clearly nervous. "What do you put in that tea?"

Edith looked puzzled and concerned. "You should probably go lay down after you finish your food. How much sleep did you get last night?"

"I don't remember," Orion said.

"That probably means you got a lot," Jason said hopefully. "You know," he added as an afterthought, "If you need to go to the hospital, we're so gonna take you to Viridian. No questions about it."

"Naw," Orion said at once. "I'm just wiped out. Too much excitement."

"Can't argue there," Gina agreed. "You can take your food to your room, or something."

"Good plan," Orion said, moving to pick up his plate and cup of—he looked into it—orange juice. Apparently he had been halfway through drinking orange juice. Why he had no recollection of this was beyond him.

Edith picked up his things for him. "Ah-ah," she said. "You go. I'll follow."

Orion ate his food listlessly in his room for a while, trying to remember pieces of the day before. Nothing was popping up in his head, though, and he was tempted to just write his odd memory lapse off as a fever side effect.

He still felt strange, though, and decided to visit the other under-the-weather person in the cottage. Zahlia smiled at him and motioned to a chair for him to sit in. He was feeling a little more confident on his feet and managed to navigate his way into it well enough.

"Before you get to ask me, I get to ask you," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," he lied. "You?"

"Alright," she said, wiggling her toes to prove she could. "I'll be happy to get this thing off, though."

The conversation tapered off a little, and Orion turned to look out the window. The sun was still rising in the sky, which comforted him. He half-expected it to be night; these little hops in time were nothing short of confusing to him.

"Zahlia, about your brother," he said, a frown coming to his face. "Are you sure you don't know why he would have suddenly appeared and attacked you and Blake?"

Zahlia's expression became subdued and closed-off, but Orion couldn't help trying to figure out more motives for the bizarre assault. She clearly didn't want to talk about it, but it was important. "I'm not sure," she said. "Like I said before, it happened pretty fast. He wouldn't answer my questions and was acting very tense and unusual. When we started backing up it seemed to anger him, and the whole thing turned into a Pokemon battle." She finally made eye contact with Orion and shrugged. "I don't know beyond that."

"Sorry for making you repeat it," Orion said. "I'm just—"

"… Trying to figure out how to help," Zahlia said, giving him her rare grateful smile again. "I appreciate it."

Orion knew that being on the receiving end of it ought to make him happy. He couldn't muster up the energy to feel anything but exhausted and off-balance.

* * *

_Author's Note: Well, the next chapter will be the last one of Rose. It's in switching POV, but will be clearly labeled to avoid confusion. _


	34. Chapter 34

Pokemon Rose

Chapter 34

Gina Ikeda

Jason followed Edith around sometimes, not realizing he was doing it. She seemed kind enough when it came to his crush on her, and gave him tasks to do when she could think of them. They were very few and far between, though; when one had OCD and lived alone, one learned how to do pretty much everything just right. There were more people living here, though, so invariably the workload increased. Gina got to watch Gav, Orion and Victoria argue with Edith about money, insisting that they pay her much more than simply the cost of their food, which she had so far refused. Evidently her business kept her up and running perfectly fine, and the idea of taking money from unemployed travelers baffled her. Poor Jason looked torn between siding with his brother to give Edith more money, or with Edith to stay on her good side.

At first it had been cute. Gina made fun of him occasionally, but when he seemed genuinely mortified about the whole thing she laid off a little. It was unusual though, realizing that a topic was "off limits" between she and the boy she had come to regard as her best friend. Gina figured she didn't know how it felt since she had yet to feel that way about anyone yet. It piqued her curiosity for sure, and she wondered if it was too unbearably girly to ask Jason about it—later, of course, when he wasn't so embarrassed.

Gina supposed in a way she was jealous. Jason was spending a lot of time around Edith these days, and the two of them seemed to get along quite well. Edith was very nice, in spite of the rocky start she and the group had had, but it was hard for Gina to tell if she was interested in Jason back. Gina hoped that he wouldn't forget to spend time with her if the two of them did start dating, or something. She still had an image of Jason as an immature, gung-ho boy and couldn't imagine him being all lovey-dovey with someone.

"Your move, Gi! Unless you'd like to forfeit."

Gina grinned up at Jason and laughed. "You wish!" she said, shouting an order to Charmander and sending him forth with a torrent of small flames.

The battle ended with a win for Gina, as Pidgey had outmatched Jason's Nidoran after a long struggle. Gina stuck her tongue out in response to Jason's joke about "letting her win" and took Pidgey's Pokeball off her belt to recall it.

Pidgey, however, squawked at Gina and fluttered away from her when she pointed her aiming laser at it. Concerned, Gina dropped the Pokeball and crouched down nearby. "What's wrong?" she asked, reaching a hand out to Pidgey. Pidgey, however, snapped at her and clacked its beak shut on open air near her hand. Gina flinched back and gave her Pokemon breathing room.

"What's going on?" Jason asked, exchanging a concerned look with Gina.

"I don't know," she said, a split second before Pidgey had a full-body shudder and began to grow. It was the strangest thing Gina had ever seen, but there was no way it could be described as anything else. Pidgey was getting bigger.

"Holy crap!" Jason exclaimed, taking a few steps forward and crouching down next to Gina. "We get to watch an evolution!"

"Is—is that what's happening?" Gina asked, her voice tense and louder than she'd meant out of concern for her Pokemon. She yanked her Dex messily from her pocket and peered through the viewfinder, and Jason leaned over her shoulder to smash his cheek next to hers and also look. It was cramped and ungainly but both of them were desperately curious to see what was going on. The little screen, indeed, had a scrolling bar running across it that read _evolution in place; do not recall Pokemon to Pokeball. _A line of stats beside Pidgey kept on climbing higher and higher. Gina watched, dumbfounded, as the little numbers that indicated Pidgey's strength, speed, special attack and such soared upwards.

"Is Pidgey okay?" Gina said, biting her lip. Even though her Dex was leading her to believe that this was normal, Gina couldn't help peering at Pidgey with anxiety. Pidgey was getting slowly bigger, not all at once, but in small stages. Little feathers were starting to poke out in between Pidgey's existing ones, to make up for the greater surface of bigger wings. The plume on its head was lengthening as well, creeping farther down its back.

"Pidgey's totally fine!" Jason said, his grin stretching ear-to-ear. "Pidgey's great!"

The process took about five minutes, and then Pidgey—Pidgeotto—ruffled its feathers out and stretched its wings wide. The new wing span was probably close to six feet. Pidgeotto turned around to Gina, looking a little bit sheepish, and hopped over to her to nudge her hand with its head. Gina stroked the long plume feathers and broke out into a relieved grin.

"Freaking sweet! Oh man! Check you out!" Jason could not keep his mouth shut. "Do you think Pidgey—uh, otto, will let me…?"

"Yeah, I think the nip earlier was just so I wouldn't crowd the process," Gina said, feeling overwhelmed by Poke-love as Pidgeotto bumped against her leg with its head. "Look at you!" she said, dissolving into pride and something embarrassingly close to baby talk. "You're so awesome! Yes you are!"

* * *

Jason Fremont

Edith was more of a Pokemon rescue girl than a breeder. This is what Jason had decided, anyway. She _was_ still in the business of raising Pokemon babies of specific types; she had an area for that in the back. For the most part, though, her cottage was a collection of wild Pokemon that couldn't handle Pokeballs, were disabled, had emotional issues or had been abandoned by trainers in the forest. The Eevee breeding program was probably the thing her place was best known for.

"A lot of the times people will keep trying to breed the same two Eevee over and over until the mother gets sick and her pups are born with defects," Edith explained to Jason. Jason at the moment was a bit overrun with brown puppies; they tugged at his sleeves, sniffed at his shoes and nibbled at his fingers. If Edith noticed the current danger he was in of death-by-puppy-burial, she didn't seem to think it was a problem. "Or, they'll often times breed two Eevees from the same litter, which can wind up with the same effect."

"So, where do you get your Eevee from?" Jason asked, pulling his sleeve away from one and only succeeding in making it more determined.

"I'm in touch with other breeders across Kanto. We trade sometimes to make sure the gene pool stays fresh. You okay there?"

"Oh, yeah," Jason said, trying to sound nonchalant as another few puppies stomped on his stomach. "I love dogs." That part was true, at least; he just wasn't sure he loved this many all over him.

"They seem to like you," Edith said simply. "You must be a good trainer."

"You think so?" Jason asked, sounding a little too interested in her answer. He was tossing away cool points here. "I always thought breeders sort of didn't like trainers," he said, hoping he wasn't generalizing.

"Not me," Edith said. "Of course you get your occasional bad trainer here and there, but I do agree that Pokemon are competitive. They genuinely like to learn and grown and improve. I just know the training bit is not for me."

"Well," Jason said, displacing an Eevee or two as he got to his feet. Edith was a few inches taller than him, which abashed Jason immensely. He made a mental note to drink tons of milk. "I think you'd be a good trainer."

"Thanks," she said, smiling at him, and he had to turn away to preserve his man-points.

* * *

Victoria Larson

Victoria had a clear view of Jason being awkward around Edith. She and Gav were up on the second floor in his room, and the window in that room had a clear view out to the breeding pen at the back. She couldn't help but chuckle to herself at how uncomfortable Jason seemed in this new situation. _The horrors of growing up, _Victoria thought as Jason turned away from the girl and made a rather funny face.

"I think everyone is alright with the four of us remaining the main investigative team," Gav was saying. Victoria shook the sleepy laziness from her head and turned back to him. It was one of the last warm days of the year, and she knew it would be getting chilly soon. It probably wouldn't snow this far south, but it would definitely not be sunbathing weather.

"That's a funny way to put it," Victoria said. "As if they would physically force themselves upon us."

"You never know," Gav said in faux seriousness.

Victoria had to admit, he had a point there. Orion was almost aggressive with his niceness, Edith was the equivalent of a 40-year old mom trapped in a 13-year old's body… many of the others were concerned about them, in a pushy-but-well-meaning sort of way. Victoria might not consider them all friends just yet, but she was growing accustomed to their presence and was happy no one had shot their mouth off to the wrong person yet.

"You think Beth and Kaylee are really happy though?" Gav asked, breaking suddenly from the business talk. Victoria raised an eyebrow at him, confused.

"You mean, here?"

"I mean this," Gav said, indicating the paperwork spread out over the entire surface of the desk. "Doing this stuff."

"I think they're happy to be doing something important. But, you know, it's important that we give them time to relax like this. I mean, after all, they're still kids."

"There's something else," Gav said, scrolling down on his PDA. "Something regarding Saffron."

"Hmm, seems like all the action happens right when we leave," Victoria commented. "What is it?"

"The Silph Company hasn't released any new newsletter in almost six months. Normally this wouldn't be strange, but they've also laid off almost a third of their workers in the same time frame."

"I did read about that," Victoria said. "Before I met you and Kaylee, of course. I figured it was just bad business."

"Well, let's hope that's all it is," Gav said. "I'm gonna start looking into those laid off workers soon. We probably won't be ready for a trip there for quite a while. We'll look into other smaller incidents in the mean time."

"So, this will be a bit of a long-term goal," Victoria said, nodding. "Alright. I can use Edith's computer and take part of your list."

Gav gave her a strange look then, and Victoria raised her eyebrows at him.

"What?"

"Nothing, just…" he smiled thoughtfully, pausing before continuing. "I'm just glad you and Beth got attacked by Fearow that one day. Not to be taken the wrong way."

Victoria gave him a teasing look and a light shove on the shoulder, but inside she was warmed by the compliment. "You should adopt distressed teens into your group more often," she said, indicating the house as a whole with a motion of her hand. "Seems pretty effective so far."

* * *

Gav Harrison

Gav felt like his eyes were going to turn into liquid and leak out of his face. He shut off his PDA, took the band out of his hair, and massaged his scalp fiercely for a few moments. He let his head hang down over the desk and sighed, struggling to decompress and chase away a migraine. He figured it was probably a little too late for that, though.

Like clockwork there was the knock on his door. Instead of turning around, Gav leaned back in his chair so he could peer, upside-down, at the door. "Come in," he said.

Kaylee pushed the door open and gave him a look. It was a little disorienting to watch her walk across the ceiling towards him. "Sup?" he said.

"Wow, the PDA's actually off. Betcha only switched it off about two seconds ago though."

"That would be correct," Gav said, sitting upright and accepting one of the sandwiches Edith had no doubt made. Kaylee managed to set things on fire even when the recipe didn't call for the oven or stove.

"Well, did you find anything interesting?"

"Naw," Gav said. "Most of the people who got laid off just moved quietly off to new jobs. Some expressed anger in various interviews… almost all of them got new gigs right away, though."

"Yeah, you kind of do when you used to work for Silph," Kaylee agreed. She bit into her sandwich and Gav closed his eyes while he chewed, letting his throbbing temples relax a little. "Gav?" she asked him after a few moments.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we're getting close?"

He thought about that for a while. "I don't know how close we are to the end. But I do know we're getting closer every day."

"Aw Gav, that's cheesy."

"Hey, you asked!"

* * *

Kaylee Harrison

Kaylee had to admit she was feeling better as she left Gav's room. Maybe she'd have felt a little better if he'd conceded to come outside and enjoy the end of the warm season with her, but she would take what she could get.

She really liked this place. It was weird, knowing they could come here whenever they wanted, knowing that it was relatively safe. It felt sort of like being home again, but better, if possible. Here there were people laughing and talking, battling Pokemon out back and taking naps in weird places. It wasn't just she and Gav and their memories. Kaylee knew she could get very used to a place like this.

She passed Orion playing with an Eevee, and waved to him before heading outside. Gina and Jason were there, and so was Edith. She wasn't sure what they were pointing at off in the distance, but they were laughing about it. It made her happy to see.

In reality, Kaylee knew she could very easily grow _too _accustomed to this place. Who knew how long it would last? Gav had never revealed to them exactly what he and Edith had talked about during the week of their trial by fire, but Kaylee hoped it was enough to assure their good graces with Edith for a while at least. She'd only been here for a little over a week and already the idea of having to leave was depressing to her.

She didn't want to settle. Settling would mean giving up the project, and there was no way Kaylee was going to do that. She just could not deny the irresistible lure of other people.

Beth was over by the fish pond, letting her team swim about. Kaylee took a seat far enough away to avoid being splashed.

"You feed Gav?" Beth asked, giving Kaylee a knowing smile.

"Yup," she responded. "You know how he is."

"Sure do!" Beth said, reaching into the water to pet Goldeen. Kaylee watched her friend, so different from her in some ways, and so similar in others, and felt grateful all over again. Staryu moved closer to Goldeen, and Beth rubbed down its gem, cleaning the edges where it blended into the starfish's rubbery flesh. Her mind wandered back to her brother, and she wondered how many hours a day he and Victoria were filing away up there, researching Saffron and Silph.

"When do you think they'll figure out the whole mutual attraction thing?"

"What, Goldeen and Staryu?" Beth joked.

Kaylee laughed. "Yes, of course. No, I mean—"

Beth giggled. "I know who you mean. Ah, give 'em time. Sometimes it's like they're still kids."

Kaylee thought to herself that truer words had never been spoken.

* * *

Beth Larson

Beth, unfortunately, was never good at cooking. She sometimes wondered what kind of wife or mother she would make if she could screw up something as simple as boiling water.

"Eda, I'm so sorry! Oh my God, it's totally gone!" Beth stared down in disbelief at the pot that had formerly held water and herbs. "It evaporated so fast!"

"Water at a boil tends to do that," Edith conceded, but she was smiling. "It's alright, there's more where that came from. She put more hissing water into the pot, turning the faucet on and off twice when she was done, and placed the pot back on the stove. A few moments later more herbs and spices were added to the water. "Just let me know when that starts to go," she said.

"I promise, this time," Beth replied, putting her head in her hands. "Jeeeez. I'm sorry."

"Fah," Edith said, waving her hands at Beth as she walked away down the hall. Edith tended to do that—the "fah" and the retreat—whenever anyone in the house apologized or thanked too much. Beth awkwardly returned to her task of watching the water intently as it slowly began to boil.

As she stood, she let her mind wander. She thought of her letters home to her mother, and the letters to the City Penitentiary in Celadon that would eventually get to her father. She had been keeping the letters just as boring and vague as ever; as far as the Larson family knew, Beth and Victoria were still out meandering slowly across Kanto, raising their teams at a steady pace. It made Beth feel guilty, but she knew telling them anything even close to the truth was out of the question.

That part, at least, Beth could deal with. When it came to the difficulty that even sending a boring letter brought, though, Beth felt boxed in and trapped. She didn't want any of their mail getting tracked here, as paranoid as it sounded. Edith's return address could not be linked to them in any way. This severely limited the ways in which she could get in touch with her father, even if she could still call her mom on occasion. Victoria wasn't as close to their parents, and Beth often admired her independence. She supposed she just wasn't ready to be a separate unit from the rest of their family yet.

Edith seemed to notice Beth's ennui when she returned to the kitchen. Mistaking it for lingering water-guilt, Edith's eyes widened. "Good lord, it's really not a big deal."

"Oh, no, not that," Beth said, shaking her head. "I'm over my failure to cook water. I was just puzzling over the correspondence thing."

Beth managed to not screw up dinner too badly from that point on, mainly because Edith only gave her the simplest of tasks, and instead made Beth explain her troubles to her. Beth only realized she'd been rambling a bit when the smell of the now-complete vegetable lasagna chased all lingering thoughts from her head. Dinner was an affair to remember, since Kaylee managed to upset the Poliwhirl under the table by accidentally kicking it (the meal got a lot soggier from that point on) and Gina's Pidgey had, evidently, evolved earlier in the day.

"Evolution is a lot weirder than I though it would be!" Gina insisted between bites. "I mean, Pidgey sort of just… grew. It was a really fast process, but it still took a couple of minutes. I'm just glad it didn't seem painful."

"That was the freakin' coolest thing I've ever seen in my life!" Jason insisted, shoveling his food down at lightning speed. "I can't wait until Abra evolves, or Bulbasaur!"

"Don't be so sure," Orion said quietly. He still looked a little worn, but he was participating more in conversations these days. "You know Bulbasaur never does anything in a hurry."

"Yeah, well…"

Beth was enormously full and sleepy when she dragged herself off to the room she shared with Kaylee. Kaylee wasn't there yet, but a note was. It was folded neatly on Beth's bed, and she recognized Edith's cramped, impossibly neat handwriting.

_Beth — here's the address of one of my associates in Viridian. I called him and it's okay for you to address the letters to your dad from him. He'll forward any mail for you here. — E_

Below it was a neatly copied address block, and Beth held the paper close to her face and grinned her thousand-watt grin.

* * *

Blake Nakawa

Blake often thought of many things at once. It went a step beyond what most people referred to as "multitasking," though; Blake's brain literally felt like two brains at times. When he was getting reprimanded at age eight for skipping class, he had been trying to remember a peanut butter cookie recipe in the back of his mind. When he was half-asleep in bed he thought about where he would hide and what he would use as a weapon in the event of an armed robbery in a Pokemon Center. When Zeke had attacked he and Zahlia, demanding that they give up before they were hurt, Blake had thought _if I live through this, I should really shampoo my hair. It's been a long time and it's super uncomfortable._

Backburner Blake was crazily annoying at times, but right now it was a useful feature. Real Blake was doing his best to keep up in a conversation with Gav, who was grilling him on Zeke and what he knew. Real Blake was trying to keep his facts straight, not say anything wrong, and not look like he was thinking too hard. Backburner Blake was observing Gav's face, stressed and serious, calculating how he would look and what health problems he would have in his middle-age. Backburner Blake noticed that Gav was not really "all here," and that he kept glancing over at Orion's door.

"Worried about Orion?" Blake asked, changing the subject at the perfect moment, just as Gav sighed and shook his head.

Gav looked up. "Yeah, I am, a little. He seems better but, y'know…"

"Yeah," Blake said. "It was real good of him to come over to Zahlia and I. Jason and Gina, too. We're pretty lucky they believed us. No way I coulda carried Zahlia back to Vermillion alone."

"Right," Gav said. He was getting distracted, remembering that night. Maybe he was thinking about how odd it was that they all had put aside their prejudices and judgments to go out on a limb for one another. Backburner Blake figured that he was also not strong enough to carry Gav, but that was a wayward thought and not very relevant to the situation at hand.

Sure enough, Gav was sufficiently derailed, and got up. "Well, thanks for your info. Sorry I keep asking. Just trying to make sure I've got everything."

"No problem," Blake said, shrugging. "Anytime."

Blake headed back to his room, trailing one hand on the wall and counting the planks as he passed over them. This reminded him of OCD, which reminded him of Edith. He wondered how bad her diagnosis was, then wondered if she'd even been properly diagnosed. He wondered if they could prescribe meds, and what the meds would do; then he wondered what would happen if he tried them, just for kicks, not that he would. This train of thought lasted only for the walk down the hall to his room, and branched off into many other sub-categories. Blake often came off as weird and quiet to others, but not particularly shy. Blake was very frequently lost in his head.

He thought of Gav, re-evaluating the idea of lifting him, if he used leverage versus sheer strength. Then he shook off the random Gav-lifting thoughts and went back to thinking just of Gav as a person and not as living workout equipment. Gav was a good guy, just trying to help people. Beth, Kaylee, Orion, and all the others were good people too. Victoria was the one who intimidated him the most, but he even liked her, in a weird way. She was effective, at least.

In all honesty, Blake didn't want to keep secrets from them. But Zahlia was keeping secrets from him, and until he knew why, he didn't want to reveal anything. Like a good brother, he would keep her secrets until she was comfortable enough to share.

* * *

Zahlia Nakawa

Her leg still hurt very much. It twinged in its cast, and she had to wonder if the doctor had been right about the one month recovery period. Maybe she had worsened it with all the travel. The thought of going back to a hospital to get it off was not a pleasant one, and she hoped Edith could help her take it off in-house instead. She was pretty good with Pokemon injuries, which gave Zahlia hope. She would not be looking forward to any more trips to major cities. It was bad enough that the group had stayed in Pewter overnight on their way here. She hoped Zeke had been too busy to follow.

He was probably catching on, by now. Zahlia never went this long without reporting in to him, and on a job as important as this, she really should have been sending word back every few days. It had been a few weeks now, and in spite of the fact that Zahlia had dismantled and left the pieces of her cell phone in Saffron, she couldn't shake the feeling she was being tracked.

It had been Orion that had made her start to freak out, as early as Cerulean City. She'd never liked these jobs for Zeke, but she liked it even less when Orion made it so _easy_ for her. He trusted her instantly, in spite of the fact that he had every reason in the world not to. Jason and Gina had been exactly the same. Zahlia had had no idea that the Fremont brothers would lead her to Ando Harrison's renegade children, and that those children were a part of such an interesting project. She hoped Zeke didn't know; the group hadn't talked about it at all until they'd arrived back in Saffron, and she had no clue if Zeke had followed them or not. Even after all these years she still couldn't hear or sense him near. He had been able to appear in her locked room at the Pokemon Center in Pewter more than once.

In the end, it was what she did not know that was killing her. She didn't know if Blake was safe here. She didn't know what Zeke was up to, where he was, and what his new orders might be. She didn't know if anyone in the house suspected her at all. She didn't know what Blake thought of all this; they hadn't spoken about it at all since the day Orion and the others had found her with her busted leg.

She didn't even know what she herself was going to do. There were too many choices, too many factors, and too many consequences if she so much as budged in the wrong direction.

Zahlia's leg gave another pang in its cast. She had been deviating from her orders by trying to escort Blake safely back to Fuchsia, and Zeke never did have good control over his temper when it came to surprises. If she did end up having to go back to him, she would tell him to chill the hell out in the future.

For now, all she could do was wait.

* * *

Orion Fremont

Kangaskhan was, hands down, one of Orion's favorite Pokemon. Naturally when he had learned that Edith had one in her care, his happiness had been extreme.

It was an female, which were the best kind in his book. The baby in its pouch was blind, but had a great rapport with people and was so freaking adorable Orion thought he would die from it. It liked him immediately, but Orion suspected it liked everyone. The mom was not as easy to convince, but then again, moms never were.

He regretted not being able to visit his own mother in Saffron. He still stood by his guns that it had been a bad idea at the time, but he knew there would be a day when he could safely visit her again.

It wasn't that he didn't like being here. It was downright therapeutic to be around the Pokemon and the people he had come to consider friends. He spoke with Zahlia more and more often, as they were the two bedridden ones, but even the best day couldn't stave away the nightmares.

Orion crawled out of his mother's pouch, not wanting to leave the warmth even as it was steadily decreasing. He howled to the moon and clawed his way through the dirt and twigs, looking for food as he waited for her to wake up. Months passed in this way, and still she did not move. She was different now, white and hard, and it was not long before he realized he had to leave her and start off on his own.

He wore her skull as a mask and took one of her bones to defend himself. The solitude started to kick in then, the madness, and he knew in that moment of clarity beneath the full moon that life would never be the same.

Orion woke in a cold sweat, his lungs struggling to pull in air and his throat emitting strange, guttural noises. He sat there like that, telling himself that everything would be alright until the sun rose.

* * *

_Author's Note: Well, that's a wrap, folks. Thank you to whoever got this far. The sequel will be up soon, and as always, if there are any questions, comments, or the like, I love all feedback._

_Just my opinion on the Kangaskhan thing: I don't necessarily buy the "Cubone is really a baby Kangaskhan" story, but it seemed like an appropriate motif for my chapter, so I added it into the dream. In my world though, I still say Cubones are a separate species from Kangaskhan :)  
_


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